Librarian Idol

Plan B

2011-06-30T00:02:00.000+09:30

[Cross-posted from The Land of Surprising Pun]

Two months from today, I'll be leaving the country. The fear is starting to set in. I still have no work lined up. I have no idea if I'll make any friends in the isolated town that I'll be living in. It scares me.

At the same time, I wonder - what am I losing by opting for this "Plan B" in my life.

I used to be super-keen about my career. I was so passionate about libraries, about the human capacity for learning and organising information, and about innovative ways by which we can use technology to share and enjoy our experiences, stories, and life lessons. When I became an information professional, I was determined to go out there and change the world.

But that's all changed. I know it's partially me - I don't have the age and wisdom to embody the kind of grace that I imagine is necessary to successfully manage change in a fraught industry. I used to think that all I needed was the willingness, enthusiasm, and knowhow to make things better, and the world would be right behind me. I was naive, and know now that it's a little more complicated than that.

However, I spent the evening with a group of young librarians, and whilst everybody is generally positive in their attitudes to their careers, I do keep hearing the same kinds of stories, the same experiences that I've been through in the past. And I don't envy any of them their jobs.

So, in lieu of attaining anything vaguely resembling a "dream job", it's time for Plan B. Life's too short to be frustrated at the same thing - I may as well risk a different variety of frustration. Hopefully, it'll at least vary the nature of my disillusionment with life, and who knows - perhaps I'll discover some new alternative career path that I never considered before.

One thing is for sure. When I step on that plane, it'll be goodbye to Plan A.

Like death and taxes...

2011-06-19T21:01:00.000+09:30

Change is inevitable.

My life is changing, and I'm blogging about it here at The Land of Surprising Pun.

My return to Library Blogging

2011-02-20T19:22:00.000+09:30

Greetings.

It's been a while, but I've decided to take a new direction in blogging in 2011.

For those of you who have found my Librarian Idol musings enjoyable / thought-provoking / mildly profound, I'm returning to the lib-blogger fold with a new blog, The Library Artist.

I'm also starting a review blog at The YA Book Pile, as a means of catching up on the pile of unread books that seem to have amassed in my bedroom.

See you over there!

Andrew

The end of the Idol journey

2010-04-29T21:30:00.004+09:30

So, today is my three-year blogiversary.

I've explored the library industry, and reflected on my own personal experiences in various sectors. And as much as I enjoy rambling and occasionally ranting about libraries, I feel like I've pretty much said everything that there is to say here.

I've reached my destination. It's not quite where I expected to be, three years ago (although I would love to quit librarianship and become a folk singer). However, I feel like I've said everything that needs to be said about being a new librarian.

And so, it's time for a new direction. I need to challenge myself a bit more with my blogging and writing. Talking about libraries is easy for me. It's everything else in the world that's hard. I'll be trying to make sense of it all in my new blog, Mr Begin-Again.

But, for all of you loyal bibliophiliac readers, fear not! I have also joined the team at Libraries Interact, and will be contributing semi-regular library-related posts there. I couldn't give up biblioblogging completely!

And so, dear readers, thankyou. Especially those of you who have been reading all the way from the start. It's been fun!

I'll see you all on the other side (of the reference desk).

Careering into the future...

2010-04-29T20:55:00.003+09:30

The time has come, once again, for another Library Careers evening, which will be held at the State Library of Victoria, on May 25th, from 5:30 to 7pm. I was there last year, wearing my ALIA New Graduates Group convenor hat, and I plan to be there again this year. It was an excellent opportunity to chat to members of the public, and offer some advice and insight to those who would consider becoming a librarian.

So, in an effort to polish up my elevator pitch to future librarians, here is some advice that I would give to a prospective information profession:

1. Learn something else first. Librarianship is an excellent second profession. So you're a qualified teacher / architect / lawyer / nurse / engineer, but your heart's not in it anymore? Perfect! Get your MLIS, and there's a guaranteed job waiting for you, where you won't have to work overtime. For the Arts and Science Graduates, librarianship is the perfect profession for somebody with a generalist tertiary education. However, I would NOT recommend librarianship for school leavers. You need to find and develop your passion first, before you put it into the context of library work.

2. It's an ageing profession. This means a few things. Firstly, when you apply for jobs, you'll be up against 30 and 40 somethings, who might have much more experience than you. Especially if you're in your mid-20s. So you might have a challenge getting a permanent job. (It took me ten months last year after relocating to Melbourne). It also means that you might have to deal with being generationally isolated in the workplace, so be aware of this. It can be hard. The upside, though, is that if you start young, you'll be sure to go a long way once you do the hard yards.

3. It's not just all about books. There are plenty of people who still do not realise this. However, it's also not notabout books. Anybody who tries to tell you that the age of books in libraries is over is quite mistaken. If you're a literary fanatic, librarianship can still be very much your idea of a dream job.

4. You won't be in it for the money. However, the salary is more than sufficient to live comfortably. And really, in the scheme of things, librarianship can offer some excellent work conditions. There's something very zen about working in a library, I find. When I'm feeling a little anxious, I can wander the shelves, and I feel okay again.

5. Finally, librarianship is simply a qualification, recognising a particular set of skills. The thing that will make it awesome is YOU. Ignore everything that anybody says about stereotypes of conservative shushers and shy bookworms, or self-proclaimed knowledge superheroes and information freedom-fighters. You don't have to be any of these things. But the great thing about librarianship is that it can also give you opportunities to work your strengths and shine in the community for the awesome person that you are. And we're a pretty diverse bunch.

So, that's what I'll be telling people. What kind of advice would you offer to somebody who was considering becoming a librarian?

Where does advocacy lie...?

2010-04-27T08:51:00.002+09:30

Public libraries in the US are closing or having their funding slashed at a rate I find horrifying. And those of you in special libraries will still remember the debacle of the (US) EPA library closures several years ago. Contrast that to the WA good news story of last week. Unrelenting campaigning by Labor and local libraries saw the Government restore the 40 per cent funding cuts it made to last year’s libraries budget.

What makes the difference between folding and flourishing? Advocacy!

ALIA are soon to run sessions in Australia's major cities, entitled "Every member an advocate", designed to give practical skills to advocate for both the library and the profession.

Personally, I think this is a great initiative, responding to the feedback from members that ALIA could provide more in the way of advocacy services. I think it's vitally important for every librarian to have their own personal "Elevator Pitch" down to an art. Part of being a professional is about knowing where one's strengths lie, and being able to sell their services.

But, when I read the above statement about the closure of libraries, and how lobbying from public libraries has helped restore funding in some instances, it really makes me wonder:

Are librarians really the most appropriate people to advocate for libraries?

I mean, if there is the perception in the community that there is lack of relevance and value in the services that libraries provide, then it would appear very much like librarians are simply serving their own interests by advocating for libraries. After all, libraries keep them in a job, and provide them with a professional status.

Whereas, the most powerful advocate that a library can really have is its community - the people whom the library serve. Libraries need to provide a service that the community as a whole feels is absolutely vital. The kind of service that evokes a personal and emotional connection to its constituents. The kind of service that they will miss and ask questions about in the case of budget cuts.

And it's here where librarians are vital in fostering advocacy in the community. By providing an awesome service, and pointing the community in the right direction when the service gets cut, and they demand an explanation. But they need to want it first.

The end of librarianship...

2010-04-22T18:29:00.003+09:30

So, after three years of blogging about librarians and libraries, how do I feel about my journey as a new librarian? What does being a librarian mean to me and the people around me? How has it changed?

In the first 20 months of working in public libraries, I was pretty much obsessed with that moment of "becoming" a librarian. I studied by correspondence on top of full-time work, and as much as I hated the stress of it all, there was the motivation of gaining my qualification and being an accredited professional.

In the following three and a half years, I've been intensely proud of my profession. It's something I've promoted as being innovative and on the cutting-edge of information and communication technology. I've explored the worlds of academic, public, state, and school libraries. I've voiced my strong opinions on filtering, censorship, and copyright issues, using my qualification as a librarian as my voice of authority on the issue.

Over the last few years, my career has been everything to me. Every major decision I've made has been for the sake of progressing my experience as a librarian. I took a major risk moving to Darwin for a job, and I still don't know if the time I spent there was worthwhile. I could be on a working holiday in the UK or Canada right now, but I chose to stick it out, and watched my 30th year fly past, knowing that I was better off staying put for the sake of my career.

My career always came first, because the very idea of being a librarian was important to me. I wanted to be accomplished as possible as a library and information professional, because I felt that it was at the heart of my very identity. I was a librarian.

So, here I am, in a job that I've worked towards for the last five years. It's the job that I've dreamed of. And all I can think is "Is this it? Is this all there is for me?"

And it's recently hit me. The realisation:

I am not my career.

Why?

Because librarianship in itself is not important. Not at all.

Librarianship as a profession is merely a means. The ends are what are important. And it's these ends that are different for many librarians.

For some, it might be about exploring technology, developing databases, working with children, working with the elderly, working with academics, engaging in a particular industry, being a control freak, or it might be plain old "just a job" that one doesn't necessarily invest emotional attachment to, and is purely a financial source so that they can support family, or personal passions.

For me, personally, it's about enriching communities, creating social equality, freedom of thought and expression, celebrating literature, fostering a love of reading and learning, and just generally making the world a more enjoyable one to live in.

I've come to realise that it is these things that are important to me, and not librarianship itself. In fact, I don't even have to BE a librarian to achieve these things. It's just that librarianship is the currently a fulfilling way to do this. It's what I'm doing right now.

But will I always be a librarian? I doubt it. Life is short enough, and there are plenty of other avenues ahead that still lie unexplored. For all its general appeal, the library industry has many frustrating barriers and limitations, and once I've found my own feet, I shall find a better way of achieving the things I want to do with my life.

Because, one day, once all libraries are gone, there will still remain the dreams on which libraries were built. And on those dreams will be something even more glorious and inspiring.

Impending blogiversary...

2010-04-18T20:11:00.003+09:30

I always get at least a little anxious in the time approaching my birthday. I find myself reflecting upon the previous year, and attempting to glean a sense of achievement since the last one. I also tend to reflect on my attitudes back then, and how they've changed with time.

So, in a couple of weeks, I'll be coming up to my third blogiversary for Librarian Idol. Yes, I've been writing this blog for three years, and it's interesting to look back over those years...

Back in the beginning, I made the statement:

I want to elevate the status of the librarian in society so that it takes its proper place as a recognised profession in information science, both within the wider information industry as well as within popular culture.

This was made in the context of realising that librarians weren't seen as important or relevant within the various information industries, in spite of the inspiring and progressive work that many librarians were doing.

One year later, I was attending the CBCA Conference in Melbourne, and made the observation that

"...we need to do more than just fight for teacher librarians. We need to *produce* teacher librarians to actually put into schools. I often thought about upgrading my qualification to teacher librarianship, but there just isn't any incentive..."

That week, I also debuted my cabaret show Librarian Idol at the Butterfly Club, to sold-out audiences (Okay, it was a 50-seat venue, but that's still GOOD). The premise of the show reflected my initial aim of this blog - put simply, "To return librarians to their respected place in society." It was very tongue-in-cheek, but also strangely earnest - the more that librarians try to take themselves too seriously, the more absurd they come across to people outside the industry. The sentiments expressed in the show were very honest, but in writing the show, I came to realise how flawed they actually were. You can't fight stereotypes, mostly because they're based on truth, and if you do want to change them, then perhaps you need to inspire and motivate those who perpetrate the stereotype in the first place by doing your job well. That's what I'd figured by then, anyway.

In the year that followed, I worked, for the most part, at the Northern Territory Library. It was here that I learnt exactly how awesome a good collection could be. I learnt how to use microfilm newspaper collections, perform local history and genealogy, and witnessed some innovative usage of the NTL space, for live performances, exhibitions, and lectures. It still remains to be the most stunningly beautiful places that I've worked in, purely because of the views of the tropical greenery and Darwin Harbour from the reference desk.

I blogged about awesome things I found in the library. I also started to realise that I didn't want to be in Darwin anymore. This opening quote from Love like water really said it all. Melbourne didn't feel like home anymore, but Darwin didn't feel like home yet. I felt the same way about jobs - I knew I was a librarian, but I didn't know where I belonged. I had a pretty good idea about the direction, though, especially when I was asked later that month to be a judge for the Inky Awards. I started to realise that, whilst librarianship was about having a set of particular skills and knowledge, it was also about attracting people to the collections, and inspiring them without them realising that they're being inspired. It's about developing them as readers and as an audience to our cultural heritage. And to do that, you need to eradicate all possible barriers, such as negativity, rules, complicated processes, or culturally elitist attitudes. The library should meet the needs of the user, rather than patronise the user by telling them what their needs really are. Inspire. Entertain. Discuss. Share. Enjoy.

And then, a year ago, I was back in Melbourne. It was obvious, one day, that the time had come to leave Darwin, and when I did, it felt right.

But more importantly, on my 2-year blogiversary, I made this statement about being a librarian. I was very proud of my profession, and felt that my career and my identity were one and the same thing.

Ironically, at that time I was actually working in a non-librarian role at the State Library of Victoria. It was refreshing to be working in a related area of work, but doing things that I would not have been able to do as a librarian. Similarly, my work at the City of Boroondara later that year, gave me further insight into the administrative side of public libraries. All of this certainly fleshed out my perspective on the library industry.

I also went on a trip to Vanuatu, visiting my friend Romany, and experiencing some good old traditional Melanesian culture.

Interestingly, after returning to Melbourne, I blogged far less frequently. I don't know if it's because I wasn't working as a librarian, or because I was too busy enjoying Melbourne - I suspect both played a part to these ends.

Finally, in December, I got my new School Manager job. And so, everything is different again, but strangely familiar. The library professional is still undervalued in the wider industry. It's still supposedly moving away from being "about books", and yet most libraries aren't resourced with impressive tech, and are generally full of books.

So, three years later, how do I feel about where I've come with this blog, and my own personal journey to finding my own professional identity as a librarian? Has the professional profile of librarians changed at all in the past three years? Will they ever change?

I'll answer these questions in my next post.

In the meantime, I will share this video that I made back in 2007 - my "vision" of libraries in 2010 (for a LINT competition in Library and Information Week). Did I get it vaguely right? Where did you think libraries would be in 2010?

The case for Teacher Librarians

2010-04-13T20:22:00.004+09:30

Disclaimer: Whilst I do work in a school library, the below assessment doesn't necessarily reflect my own work conditions, but rather the situation of school libraries at large.

So, at the moment, there's a call out for submissions to a Senate Enquiry into School Libraries and Teacher Librarians in Australian Schools.

For those who don't know the story:

Once upon a time, it was mandated that all school libraries should be managed by at least one Teacher Librarian - that is, a professional who had dual qualifications in both teaching and library information management. This had the positive effect whereby the librarian could understand the function of the library in terms of supporting school curriculum, as they could also think like a teacher.

I'm also told that it also had the unfortunate result whereby the librarian was also often required to close the library whenever they had to teach, in situations where they were the only librarian present.

Something happened to that requirement along the way, because over recent years, there has been a substantial decline in the employment of qualified Teacher Librarians managing schools. Especially primary schools. I'm told that, in many cases, this was because it was necessary to have a staff member spend a full-time load managing the library, and if they weren't actually teaching classes, it seemed unfair for them to be paid the same wages as a teacher who was. After all, teaching is bloody hard work, compared with managing a small library.

And so, it came to pass that many government schools would instead employ somebody as an Education Support (ES) Officer to manage the library. They are employed on a renewable ten-and-a-half month contract (beginning in late January and ending in Mid-December), and paid for 40 weeks a year.

Sometimes the position description will specify the need for a professional qualification in librarianship. Sometimes it will settle for a library technician role. Often it will vaguely refer to "appropriate qualifications".

However, even in cases where they specifically request a qualified professional, with a strong knowledge of children's literature, collection management and cataloguing experience, team management skills, substantial budgeting experience, information literacy training ability, and sufficient interpersonal skills to engage with teenage kids from 8am in the morning - even then, they will only offer them a salary that is less than that of a graduate teacher for the first three years.

A suitably skilled librarian would be earning a minimum of $60k in most other cases. No self-respecting library professional would take up such a role, unless they were really passionate about young people and young adult literature. Certainly, no qualified teacher librarian would stoop to such a role.

The solution? Schools need to accept the fact that if they want to attract highly skilled librarians to schools, then they need to offer positions that are competitive with the rest of the industry, in terms of salary and work conditions.

I daresay that government schools cannot afford to do this.

Alternately, they need to provide opportunities for their teachers to gain qualifications in librarianship, and consider a career change into libraries, as a Teacher Librarian, whilst maintaining their interests (and salaries) as a teacher.

Because whilst some schools are fortunate enough to be able to attract qualified library professionals who are prepared to take a paycut to pursue their passion for youth services, they are also shooting themselves in the foot by alienating professionals who know exactly what they're worth, and won't get out of bed for less than $30 an hour.

But Teacher Librarians, on the other hand, have the best of both worlds, and are on a teacher's salary, which is much better value for money than paying a non-teacher librarian the recommended salary for a seasoned librarian with specialist knowledge and management experience.

So, to all the Senators out there reading this. My recommendation is that you either legislate that non-teaching library professionals get paid a comparable salary to the rest of the industry, or else just bring back Teacher Librarians. It might put me out of a job, but even I know that it's the best option.

Certainties and doubts

2010-03-31T17:46:00.003+09:30

So, a year ago yesterday, I arrived back in Melbourne, with no job, no secure future, and really no idea of what I was going to do with my life.

The only thing I was sure of, a year ago, was that it was the right move for me. In fact, I wasn't at all scared or uncertain. It just felt like the natural thing to do. Follow my instincts, without a real sense of forward-planning.

Over the last five years of career-planning, and careful thinking about what was best for my professional development, this was the best thing I'd done.

But now, a year later, I'm in a different place. I've actually managed to work out exactly what I want to do with my life for the foreseeable future. It's a really satisfying feeling, to just know what I want to do, what I really love, and what fulfils me as a person.

And it scares the crap out of me.

It's a bit like being locked in a room with everything you could possibly want, and being told that you can leave the room, but you can never come back again.

And the problem with such certainty is the possibility that I might be wrong.

Forget Cleo...

2010-03-16T11:05:00.002+09:30

Since the title of my blog alludes to popularity competitions of literariness, I feel compelled to direct you to the 2010 Cleo-UN Writer Bachelor of the Year, as nominated via Twitter, and moderated by Tom Cho

You can only vote once, but you can vote for as many people as you like.

Listless...

2010-03-09T06:51:00.004+09:30

I recently found myself opening iGoogle for the first time in a very long time. You see, I'm a bit of a list person, and I live by to-do lists. In a former lifetime I used to use a Task List widget in iGoogle. This was what was sitting on it from the last time I checked it...

---

Leave Darwin
Wed, Mar 25, 2009

Meet Lisa, 1pm at Cinque
Thu, Mar 26, 2009

Move into new house.
Sun, Mar 29, 2009

Martin Martini and the BPO
Melbourne Uni, lunchtime
Mon, Mar 30, 2009

Meeting with Paula
3:30pm at Tulk.
Mon, Mar 30, 2009

Coffee with Penni
Meet at Creative Arts building, on the steps. 11:30am
Tue, Mar 31, 2009

---

Oh how times have changed in just under a year...

Turning the tables

2010-03-08T18:37:00.006+09:30

In the past, I have called into the question the practice of employing non-librarian professionals into roles that have traditionally been performed by qualified libraries. This happens in the APS where any qualified graduate with the required skills can work at the National Library of Australia. We're seeing similar things happen in public libraries more and more. Being a card-carrying member of my professional association, I value the quality control that an accredited qualification brings to the profession, and the consistency in service standards that results in the industry.

And yet, I now find that the tables have somewhat turned on me, having moved to the education industry.

Last week, when I attended the SLAV event, I raised some of the issues mentioned in my previous blog post. It was explained to me by a few people that they didn't consider SLAV to be a professional association for librarians per se, but a professional association for teachers. Furthermore, they saw the school librarianship to be intrinsically a teaching profession, and that ALIA had very little bearing on their profession.

Furthermore, some implied (and others stated quite frankly to my face) that I will never be a school librarian without a teaching qualification.

Whilst I found this quite discouraging (and slightly demoralising) I also found consolation in the fact that people were judging me purely for the piece of paper that I had, and not necessarily on my merits. There was also a certain comfort in mixing with a couple of other professionals at the SLAV event who weren't necessarily teaching professionals, but were holding distinguished positions in the school library and learning industries.

And here's the thing: I've addressed the skills and criteria necessary to work as a school librarian. I can talk to school kids for hours about children's and young adult literature. I can run workshops on writing essays and using proper referencing and citation. I can run research skills sessions using authoritative online sources, and subscription databases. I can run recreational reader development activities. I can assess, maintain and develop a collection, according to a collection development policy. I can network with local businesses, community organisations and libraries in developing partnerships for projects. I can manage workflow in a small team. I can perform basic original cataloguing - certainly to the degree necessary for a school - and oversee copy-cataloguing. I can manage a budget, and prepare project plans for creating new innovations, such as digitising a/v collections, establishing notebook computer loan schemes, etc. I have prior experience working with schools and teachers in public and state libraries. I have performed roles that have required an understanding of VELS. In my current role, I've already started fitting into the school culture, assisting with co-curricular and sports activities. I've worked to establish a professional relationship with the teaching staff, and a welcoming and helpful relationship with the students. And, as I said before, I'm a card-carrying professional librarian.

Most importantly, I am very passionate about what I do. I am 100% dedicated to providing a safe environment where students can learn and share information and culture, and that they will value as a social and recreational hub in the school.

Yes, a teaching degree would certainly enhance my current skills. But the reality is that (a) I can't financially afford to take a year off work to study teaching, (b) I've committed myself to this role as a school library manager, and (c) there's no guarantee that a teaching qualification would necessarily lead to me getting a "better" job, so where's the sense in spending a year of full-time and university fees? Finally, (d) a teaching degree won't necessarily make me a good teacher. I'm not really convinced that I would be a good teacher, otherwise I would have gone and studied teaching, back in the days when the government would have financially supported me in my studies.

So, this is where I'm at. I'm quite proud of my achievements. I know I'm not perfect, but I'm pretty confident that I can perform my role well and at least meet expectations of my employer. Without a teaching degree.

(Of course, if anybody wants to financially support me for a year, and pay my uni fees, to study teaching for a year full-time, then I will happily obliged. You have until October to raise the funds.)

Finally, I'll also add that in my current team there's me, the library manager, a teacher librarian who does a combination of teaching, managing part of the collection, and working the circ/ref desk, and a library technician. We work as a team, and between us, we certainly have the required range of skills and knowledge to provide a top quality service.

New assocations...

2010-03-02T10:05:00.001+09:30

Tomorrow, I’ll be embarking on a new professional networking mission.

Tomorrow, I’ll be heading to my first SLAV event. It’s a cocktail party, celebrating SLAV’s 50th anniversary, so I can safely assume that most people whom I should know from the School Library industry – all the movers and the shakers – will be there.

Since moving to this sector of the library and information industry, it’s slightly perplexing as to why there are multiple organizations that have the same goal. Here, we have SLAV – the School Library Association of Victoria – but the qualification is accredited by ALIA, with whom I have been an actively participating member for a number of years. Surely it makes sense to have one central point of contact for all library and information professionals. This just strikes me as double-handling.

And, indeed, it’s no surprise that declining membership is a major concern within our professional associations. ALIA has, amongst its many duties, the responsibility of maintaining quality control of the profession, through the accreditation of its courses. It relies primarily on membership revenue to operate. And this is one of the main reasons that I support ALIA.

But all of this costs money, usually out of the pocket of the individual. Why should I join another association, when I’m already a member of one. One that already contains professional peer networks which address my needs.

Why? Professional networking. I need to connect with my peers in the school library industry.

The unfortunate reality is that ALIA seems to be somewhat devoid of school librarians. Why this is, I don’t know, but I’m told that if I want to network with them, I should go to SLAV. I already feel somewhat conflicted about this – almost like I’m cheating on a partner, but I guess I’ll get a clearer perspective of the situation once I go along tomorrow.

Personally, I’d like to see a stronger crossover between ALIA and SLAV members. If both can work together, and, for example, offer reciprocal benefits to members, then it’s going to be a big win all around. There’s a lot to be gained from partnership I think it’s so important for all professionals to support their association, and if, for whatever reason, there’s some schism between the two associations, then it’s ultimately counterproductive for everybody.

Nothing to do with libraries.

2010-02-26T16:16:00.003+09:30

Guess who I'm going to see tonight?

I very rarely get fan-boyish about musicians, but tonight I am making one BIG exception!

What's in your (hand)bag? An invitation

2010-02-25T16:27:00.007+09:30

I was planning to go out this evening. However, I had an unfortunately altercation with a motor vehicle this morning when riding my bike to work. It now feels like somebody's tried to give my leg a swedish massage with a cricket bat. I'm resting it at home with some pain-go-away pills.

So, instead, I have chosen to take up Simmone Howell's invitation to share the contents of my handbag with everybody. Now, I don't have a handbag, because I am a MAN. I don't have a manbag, but I do have my crumpler bag, which I pretty much take everywhere, and is just as prevalent in Melbourne society as handbags, with the added bonus of being non-gender-specific.

I invite you, the reader, to do the same. Feel free to add a link in the comments...

So, behold, the (hand)bag, with its contents inside:

And now, allow me to empty the contents out onto my bed... It says a surprising amount about what I'm doing with my life at the moment.

For a quick rundown:

Books: I bought Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer last week. I've been a vegetarian a few times before, but changes in my life resulted in my relapsing into carnivorous ways. However, I'm pretty determined to stay off the meat this time. Eating Animals is looking to ensure that I never want to eat meat again. It's extremely well written, not at all didactic, and pulls no punches in describing how evil the animal production industry really is. Then, today, in my usual blog-reading, two completely unrelated bloggers mentioned Peter Singer's The ethics of what we eat. Both mentioned reading it as being the turning point to deciding to become vego/vegan. This seemed almost too coincidental to ignore, so I've picked it up off the shelf at work (yes, we have it at my school library), and it's going straight to my bedside pile.

University guides: There are two fold-out guides from RMIT. One is a guide to library services. The other is a guide to student services. No doubt they will come in handy as I progress with my Professional Writing and Editing course.

Class timetable: For RMIT. Plus enrolment documents.

Mobile phone: Yes, it's ancient. It makes and takes phone calls. It sends and receives text messages. I can play Snake on it. What more do I need? (However, I plan to upgrade to an iPhone in the next two months, once I've paid off my uni course fees).

Business cards: Big ones for me-as-librarian. Mini-moo cards for me-as-cabaret-performer.

Tickets: For Amanda Palmer at the Forum Theatre tomorrow night. I am such a fanboy. I made students in my library jealous because they're too little to get in. Then one of them told me that she was one of the girls playing the ukulele in this video. These kids are way cooler than me.

Badges: We don't need no steekin' badges! Actually, I do.

Condoms: Because I'm a good boy. And if there are kids reading this, DON'T put them in your wallet - it's bad. That goes for you big kids too.

Pens: Essential for writing.

Notebook: Essential for storing words.

Moleskine diary: Because I'm a Moleskine slut.

Moleskine addressbook: See above. Plus I don't trust my phone to lose everybody's numbers. It's happened too many times, with many phones.

Invoice: Dated 29/11/2008. Addressed to Corporate Express, Darwin, for providing entertainment for their Christmas Party. It's quite a story, which would take up a blog post in itself. Or, in fact, would make an entertaining short story. Basically, it was an evening of build-up madness at its worst. A week later, I was in Melbourne at the New Librarian's Symposium, meeting people who would come to be lasting friends, and a motivation for me to move back to Melbourne.

Order form: for Ford Street Publishers, which I picked up at launch of Foz Meadows' Solace and Grief last weekend. I should have taken it out of my bag, and put it on my desk at work by now.

Wallet: Good for holding cards and money.

RSVP: for a good friend's wedding, which is a little over a month away. She knows I'm coming - I'm just bad at putting things in the mail. (Sorry, if you're reading this!) I was going to indicate a plus-one, but at the last minute I decided that I'd rather go alone. Plus I'm going to know half the people there anyway, so it'll still be fun!

Receipts: If I don't weed out the receipts regularly, they start to take over.

Nametag: For when I work my casual public library job. On top of my full-time job. Yes, I know. It's insane, but I like to keep perspective by working across a couple of sectors.

Payslip: From work. It's none of your beeswax, but it's nothing to be jealous of, either. I'm just glad to be paid more than enough to survive, doing something I love.

Pamphlet: Guide to the Booktrail of the Southern Highlands. When I recently visited friends in Canberra, we went for a drive along the Hume Highway across to Bowral (which is almost all the way to Sydney) for a bookstore crawl. We got distracted by alpacas and Devonshire Tea in Berrima, but the scones were to die for. We still managed to fit in about half a dozen bookstores. Librarians can be so predictable sometimes.

Elastic bands: For flicking at people when they annoy you.

Every piece tells a story. What's in your (hand)bag?

On context and generalisations...

2010-02-21T23:09:00.002+09:30

I've decided to delete my last post.

The problem with blogs is that it's a public forum, and whilst it's cathartic to try and work out all of life's problems through the expression of thoughts, the problem lies wherein those thoughts are derived from a particular scenario. One which would be inappropriate for me to describe specifically.

A possible solution is to try to ascertain if this is a common scenario amongst others in similar situations, through the use of hypothetical generalisations.

Unfortunately, this backfired, and the actual point of my blog was overshadowed by the presentation of examples which were gross overgeneralisations and, whilst apparent in specific areas of the industry, was not necessarily the norm. Many who responded perceived that I was being quick to make widespread conclusions, whereas I was merely alluding to current circumstances, and trying to work out a solution to it.

So, instead, I shall pose another question. A broad one.

Libraries are unique systems. No two libraries are the same. Each exists in within a unique cultural setting, with unique demographics, and every team has differing skill sets.

Given this, to what extent do we look at evidence across the industry to determine performance standards and library policies. Is it even important to know how other libraries exercise best practice, or is it more important to focus specifically on one's own library in terms of its community's needs and the culture it exists in? Where else could we look to in establishing a model for one's own library?

The end of a journey...

2010-02-18T09:28:00.003+09:30

I've often been described as being "really focused on my career". So much so that it's become a running joke in my life.

Ever since graduation as a librarian, I've received excellent career advice. Always think two or three jobs ahead of yourself. Know exactly where you want to be in two/five/ten years in the future. Build networks. Monitor your professional development. Keep learning.

Five years ago, I attended a job interview for what would be my first permanent full-time library job. The interview chair asked me where I saw myself in 5-10 years. I remember saying that I saw myself working as a librarian in five years, and certainly managing my own library in ten. To be honest, I never really looked far beyond that.

I ended up working as a professional librarian a year and a half later, and was managing my own small public library branch in under three years. I needed to re-assess my goals, and started thinking about dream jobs. Working in a state library or the NLA. Specialising as a children's librarian.

The NLA has managed to elude me (or have I eluded it?) but I've now worked in two state libraries, both with with involvement in youth literature events. And now, here I am, managing a school library.

Last week, I reached five years in the library world. Two and a half of those were in Darwin. Two and a half in Melbourne. Yes, I've only started in this job, and I know that I'll be here for the "long run" - it really has been what I've been working towards all these years.

And yet, the very idea of not having something further to aspire to makes me uneasy.

Perhaps this is why, eventually, people change professions. Maybe, in five years' time, I'll have had enough of libraries, and move into one of those other professions I wrote on a list about seven years ago when I was wondering what to do with my BA in English. It was really a toss-up between Librarianship and Arts Administration back then. Maybe it's something I'll pursue in the future. Who knows, maybe my professional writing course will pay off, and I'll be a prolifically published author.

Maybe all these things can be my plan. It seems as good as any.

The inevitability of change.

2010-02-15T10:45:00.001+09:30

I’ve been in my new job here for almost three weeks, and I’m regularly being asked how it’s going. I regularly find myself reflecting on the same question.

To be honest, it’s everything I hoped, everything I dreaded, and nothing like I thought it would be.

Everything I hoped.

I love fiction for teenagers – whether it be middle reader, YA, crossover, or adult-but-the-bright-kids-will-read-it. In that respect, I’m very much in my element. I love talking to young people about books, and there’s nothing quite like the feeling of seeing young people get excited by books. It really is life-affirming for me, and that’s no exaggeration.

There’s also something about school libraries. They’re the safe place in the school. A place where you can be comfortable to be yourself. Nobody’s going to judge you for curling up in a corner for reading a book. Or for playing Magic: The Gathering around a table. Or coming in first thing every morning to read the opinion section of The Australian. I love being a part of that environment.

Everything I dreaded.

School. Thirteen years ago, I couldn’t wait to leave. Yes, I have a lot of fond memories, but very few of them were of the classroom or the schoolyard. Not that I had much of a problem with bullying, but there was a lot about school culture that I really hated. It was much easier to hide with friends in the library, or a music room, or the drama room.

Thirteen years after graduating, I’m back in a school again, but on the other side. The kids are great here, but I’m still feeling that sense of dread that I felt back in high school that I was in the minority and didn’t quite belong – a feeling that magically dissipated once I got to uni and found my own clique. It’s weird. And a little scary.

Nothing like I thought it would be.

I’m in a really unusual position, in that I’m a librarian, but not a teacher. I manage the library, but don’t teach classes. I believe that part of the reason that I was recruited was because I could bring an “outside” perspective in forming a new vision for the library in the future. Of course, I have many many ideas for new innovation, but they’ve all been formed in the context of my work in public and state libraries. But a library’s a library, right?

Well, yes, but the culture is different. Vastly different. I’m still only coming to terms with slight culture shock from moving into a school environment. Whilst the outcomes of this job are very similar to that of managing a public library branch (which I have done), the nature of the work is utterly different. Managing relationships with different teaching faculties. Working around various teaching styles. Dealing with vastly divergent attitudes toward technology. Different approaches to collection development. It’s going to take me a while to properly see the library’s services through a teacher’s point of view, but I’m having regular meetings and conversations with teaching staff about their thoughts when it comes to the library. Because it’s not only the students’ library. It’s the teachers’ library. In fact, the last person it belongs to is me – the library manager.

I also kinda see why you hardly see any school librarians at ALIA events. The industry is the same, but the culture is very different. In the coming months, I can probably see myself struggling to justify maintaining my membership. Again. Especially when there are organizations like SLAV and ASLA which are more relevant to my work.

Finally, it comes as no surprise that I’m already feeling quite isolated working within the school. I’m missing the regular contact with the community and writing industry that I’ve had in previous jobs. Fortunately, I live in the awesome City of Melbourne, where there are literary events almost every night of the week, and I’m starting my PWE course at RMIT with my first class (Novel) starting tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll continue to make new friends and contacts through these channels, to keep my creativity fired up.

So, how long do you give me to burn out? (It’s apparently better than fading away.)

Insert Title Here.

2010-01-26T23:13:00.003+09:30

I'm currently up a little too late, considering that it's a school night. Now, on any other night in the past 13 years, this turn of phrase would generally indicate that tomorrow is a weekday, on which I need to get up around the time that the sun does.

Which I do.

However, tomorrow morning, I commence my new job as a library manager in a Melbourne inner-suburb high school. This is an extremely exciting step for me, as it's the kind of work that I've been moving towards since I started working as a librarian. Not that the work is a huge deviation from my previous experience - I've established my range of skills working with teenagers, focusing my knowledge on middle reader and young adult literature, managing a branch library team, running information literacy sessions, developing collections and promoting reader development in the library. This role incorporates my strongest skills and passions in the profession, and I have a good feeling that it's going to be awesome.

Of course, whilst the nature of my work will be familiar, and the needs of my clients will be familiar, there is one new factor - the environment. School. For the last month and a half, I've been focusing my professional reading on school libraries, and teacher-librarianship. I've been chatting to colleagues and associates who have been working in schools. And one thing that has struck me is that the nature of school libraries seems quite diverse. Which is unsurprising, considering that they are insular environments, with differing contributing factors, such as funding, staffing, student demographics, technological focus, etc. I've asked appropriate questions in my job interview, and had a tour of the library after being offered the position, but I'm not going to know the real nature of the environment until I've been performing the role for a period of time. This both scares and excites me.

Nevertheless, I'm very pleased to be able to once again call myself a Library Manager.

Speaking of titles, there's been some buzz around the biblioblogosphere about the AASL's recent vote to adopt the official title "School Librarian" for library professionals working in schools. It seems that the previous official title was "School Library Media Specialist", which whilst accurate in its description is not hugely evocative. There was also a move to return to the good old "Teacher Librarian", except that it doesn't address what to call the other library professionals in schools who don't teach. Would they be "Non-teacher librarian"? "School Librarian" is an all-encapsulating title that describes the environment (School) and the fact that they are an accredited professional (Librarian), both of which are evocative brands. Some feel it more appropriate to address the focus of media technology as a primary part of the librarian role, but, as always, I feel that we need to upgrade the Librarian brand by excelling in our roles, rather than giving ourselves new pretentious corporate titles, that leave people wondering what exactly it is that we do.

So, whilst the official title of my new role is "Library Manager", I am quite proud to be able to call myself a School Librarian.

Hi-fi sci-fi library...

2010-01-21T11:59:00.005+09:30

Speaking of visiting libraries whilst on holidays - a few weeks ago, whilst in transit from Melbourne to Adelaide, my friend (and fellow librarian) Katie and I stumbled upon the Mt Gambier Library. In fact, it was almost by accident - we were just looking for an ATM. And there it was across the road:

The first thing we saw, as we entered, was the cafe, which is in the actual library - the security gates are on the entrance to the cafe. Furthermore, some magazines are on display *in* the cafe for patrons to browse with their cup of coffee.

The teen area was extremely attractive, with impressively sci-fi (if a little uncomfortable) chairs, as well as gaming stations installed into walls, and couches with widescreen television. In addition were ample display areas for books, magazines and graphic novels. The perfect place to hang out and socialise.

The adult areas were also suitably engaging, with large community rooms and computer labs suited for large groups and community learning sessions. However, the real gem to this library was the children's area... designed to emulate a pond/river ecosystem, the light was dimmed, with mud-like surfaces, secluded cave areas as reading "nooks", alcoves in the walls for book displays, green reeds, and a dappled lighting effect in the ceilings. There were computer terminals at perfect height for children to use - set on small tables. A self checkout station where a frog processes your loans through the magic of RFID. Also impressive - and something I hadn't seen before - were areas designed specifically for breastfeeding. And, of course, a giant frog chair for the purposes of storytime. I couldn't help myself...

Such an amazing library. Of course, my instant reaction was "how can a regional public library afford this???". But from looking around, it was obvious through its branding - all of the areas acknowledge sponsorship and support from local businesses and industry. This library is an excellent example of public libraries creating partnerships in the community, and using those strong relations to value-add to their services. Everybody wins.

City librarians - pay good attention to this library. In fact, get in a car, and make the three-hour drive across to Mount Gambier. It's completely worth it, and you'll see *exactly* how to build a top-quality library for the 21st century.

More photos from our visit can be found here.

January 27th...

2010-01-21T10:04:00.002+09:30

Is when it all happens.

- I commence a new job as a library manager in a school library.
- I enrol into a new course, meaning that many of my evenings henceforth will be spent in class for the next four years.
- Apple will be making a very special announcement, which many are tipping to be the launch of the much-anticipated tablet device.

I'm currently on a bit of a holiday, and sitting in the main reading room at the National Library of Australia. It looks hot outside, but I think I'm going to brave the elements, and hope that the queue to see the Musee D'Orsay exhibition at the NGA isn't too long. Wish me luck...

Climb ev'ry mountain...

2010-01-10T04:29:00.003+09:30

So, Seth Godin has recently shared his two cents' worth about the future of libraries.

Firstly, I want to skip to the end, and say that, yes, libraries should spend money on developing leaders, teachers - nay, sherpas - to guide those in the library community to climb the mountains of digital media, and conquer the peaks of information literacy, in order to maintain community connectivity with information. Which is pretty much what librarians already do. If you're not doing that, then you're not doing it properly.

But what worries me are the earlier statements:

1. That libraries cannot survive simply as community-funded repositories for books. Last time I checked, book circulation statistics at my library were thriving, with no sign of decline.

2. That the number one thing [libraries] deliver to their patrons are free DVD rentals. See above comment regarding book circulation. Furthermore, these collections are enriched through incorporating community-oriented programs in the library.

3. The net turns things upside down. The information is free. Depends on your definition of free. It's free if you have access to a computer. It's free if it's not locked behind an online subscription, or only published in print media. It's free if you actually have the skills and knowledge to access the information online. But do you know what *does* make these things free - a library.

It concerns me greatly that somebody such as Godin would be making these statements, along with his accompanying advice to train people to take the intellectual initiative, as he puts it. It says a lot about the current state of libraries, if the opinion is that librarians do not currently do this.

And, finally, first thing last - his question.

What should libraries do to become relevant in the digital age?

Well, who says that they're not?

2010 - the year of e-readers (or why print media is here to stay)

2010-01-08T13:47:00.003+09:30

There has been a substantial reflection in recent months about the "future of books". Two pieces that have caught my attention, and worthy of consideration are John Green's essay The Future of Books, writen for the School Library Journal, and Corey Doctorow's How to destroy the book.

Both are excellent reads, and whilst this post is somewhat inspired by them, I'm going to digress straight away. I want to briefly discuss what seems to be a false dichotomy between bibliophiles and tech-lovers.

From these articles, and many others, there is a very conscious sense that this year is going to be a big year for e-readers. Australia will see the introduction of the Kindle as a common accessory, and we're all anxiously awaiting the Apple's "iSlate" portable netbook/tablet/e-reader, not to mention other competitors with e-reader capabilities. Similarly, in libraries, we're seeing a growth of periodicals and academic texts becoming available online, with many libraries considering the removal of their print collections if they are available through online subscriptions.

And here's the thing. I absolutely love the fact that if I want to, I will be able to download a new release book into my device, and have that immediate satisfaction of being able to start reading it in a lightweight device. I could happily lie in bed and read a book on an e-reader, the same way that I read a book. After all, I do most of my recreational online reading that way.

But here's the catch. I like to own my favourite books, and have them on a shelf for my own re-reading purposes. But moreso, my personal shelf collection is a part of my life. Whenever I need inspiration, cheering up, profound reflection on life, or the beauty of poetry, I can go straight up, gaze over the titles, pick one out, and flick through them. My collection is part of my personality, and the visual stimulus of physical books on a shelf is a necessary part of my natural habitat. It's my home.

Furthermore, I like to share. If somebody comes over to my house, and expresses an interest in one of my books, I'll take it off, and thrust it upon them, saying "Here! Read it, and then come back and tell me what you thought about it." For me, the mutual love, or hatred, or impassioned disagreement over books are what defines much of my relationship with people.

And, of course, this is all legal, because I paid to own the book. I can read it, and then give it to a friend to read, and so on. In the same way, libraries pay for books, so that they can be shared with a vast amount of the community. And then, once they start falling apart, or are no longer en vogue, then can be sold off in a second-hand book sale, and somebody can have the pleasure of owning a book that has been physically enjoyed by countless of other people in the community.

Basically, the real value in a physical book is that it can be shared. This is how it's been for centuries, even before the printing press was born. The book is an entity in itself, which can be kept, borrowed and/or re-sold.

And as a librarian, it's wonderful to be able to sing the praises of a book, and to be able to share the pleasure of reading with library patrons, and then place a copy of the book in somebody's hand, ready for them to check out and walk away. It's not quite the same to say "This book is great, and you can download it for $X from amazon or various other sites, depending on the brand of e-reader you own, if in fact you do own an e-reader, and no you won't be able to give it to anybody else, but you can recommend that they buy an e-book the same way."

Because, as Doctorow points out, it's not the same with an e-reader. When you download an e-book, you don't own it. You own a licence to read it, in the same way that you would own a licence to use a piece of computer software. But you may not share it. Unless, of course, you physically give your e-reader to a friend to borrow, so that they can read it that way. You don't own the book - you own the right to view the contents of the book on your device, but that's all.

And it's in this respect, that I honestly do not believe that the e-reader will "replace" the book, any more than pay-per-view film has replaced DVDs. I use iView (for example) to watch TV and films from ABC, but I also buy films and TV shows on DVD that I can share with other people.

Furthermore, the physical existence of a book is fundamental for it survival. You see books on display in bookstores, in libraries, on bookshelves and, most of all, in the streets - being read by people. The prominent titles and author's names, emblazoned on the front, as the hottest accessory of a reader passing the time on a 20-minute train trip. It's a conversation starter, when meeting somebody for a coffee and they notice it in your bag. Simply put - books sell themselves by being in the limelight, and they enrich our lives by being present and in the public eye. Again, it's about sharing the joy of reading in our community, and enriching the community simply by being present.

And, again, I will doubtlessly have my own portable e-reader in tow, as a solitary reading device. But I will never underestimate the power of the physical book in building communities, friendships, and fostering a love of literature and culture in the world.

E-readers will be valuable in facilitating ease of access and portability of a story. However, a good story is infinitely more valuable if it can be shared.

Melbourne Flashmob (TM)

2010-01-06T10:00:00.004+09:30

I just had the experience of witnessing the Melbourne Flashmob, which was not-so-secretly held at Bourke St Mall this morning at 11am.

Firstly, I feel it necessary to say that it was an impressive dance performance, especially subscribing to that kind of grass-roots community arts ethos that allows anybody to come aboard and join in on a large-scale choreographed dance routine in a public performance. I would encourage those who were involved to continue to pursue performing in similar artistic ventures in the community. It was fun, diverse, and embodied community spirit. Well done.

HOWEVER

When one thinks of a flashmob, one thinks of performance art as civil disobedience albeit apolitical. One thinks of performance art that challenges social norms of acceptable public behaviour. What's more, it's coordinated by "the people", and not endorsed by government organisations. It's spread through word of mouth, or through obscure online channels. It's seemingly spontaneous, with the majority of audience members being unsuspecting "innocent" bystanders, and should disappear as suddenly as it appeared, as though nothing had just happened, leaving an air of WTF? in its wake. I'm talking hundreds of people freezing on the spot in Antwerp Station. Or dozens of extra customer service assistants appearing in a homewares store and assisting customers with their choices. Or something as simple as 70 people appearing at Flinders St Station during peak hour pedestrian traffic, producing yellow rubber gloves, and pointing at the sky.

This is not a flashmob:
- Close to a thousand people crowded into Bourke St Mall - at least a quarter of whom had cameras at the ready. Not exactly your 11am crowd in the city.
- Official-looking tram people walking around with walky-talkies, getting ready to stop trams for the event.
- Hundreds of people rushing into a confined - and what looked like a very organised and set-out performance area.
- An audience of hundreds of people who seemed to know what was about to happen.
- And finally, the icing on the cake - an announcement over the PA, to the tune of "YOU HAVE JUST BEEN WATCHING THE OFFICIAL MELBOURNE FLASHMOB DANCERS, BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE CITY OF MELBOURNE AS PART OF THE SUMMER OF FUN PROGRAM. YOU TOO CAN LEARN TO DANCE LIKE THIS - GO TO WWW.blahblahblah... etc.

And, again, I hate to curb the enthusiasm of those who performed. As a well-produced large-scale public performance, it really was a wonderful. The only thing that really REALLY upset me was that it called itself a flashmob. FLASHMOBS AREN'T COORDINATED BY GOVERNMENT AGENCIES. FULL STOP. Perhaps I'm being too precious, having been involved in one in the past. Perhaps it's my dismay at witnessing a self-proclaimed flashmob that's devoid of artistic subversiveness or civil disobedience.

What upsets me the most? The thought of all the council bureacracy involved in staging this event. All the red tape, rubber stamps and authorisations needed, and presumably getting permission from the state government to delay public transport traffic. Anybody who's worked in government agencies can imagine the number of meetings and proposals that went into organising this "flashmob". And you can bet that one of the conditions for the performance was to have a very official and commercial announcement at the end, incorporating the council's branding... I almost expected an acknowledgement of corporate sponsors.

It just doesn't seem right.

Information Literacy, Social Networking and Facebook Suicide

2010-01-05T20:45:00.007+09:30

Imagine if you were asked to enter all of your personal details onto a website, including name, date of birth, country and city of residence, place of employment, hobbies, personal interests, spouses, partners and children, political and religious affiliations, professional associations, special interests. To that, you can add events that you are attending from day to day, travel itineraries, and photos of your social and professional life.

Of course, there are plenty of security settings available, so that you can customise the level of access through which other people can access your personal details. Naturally, you would want to ensure that you had full control over the level of privacy for your online presence. And you would want to take measures to make sure that you understood exactly what personal details people can and can't access. That only makes sense, especially with the occurrence of identity theft happening these days.

And before I go further - yes, I'm talking about Facebook.

Of course, the other way of controlling the amount of details that you make available online is to simply limit the amount of personal information that you put onto Facebook. However, social networking is more effective when you have a more complete online profile. So, what you ideally want is to put a lot of your personal details online, and then customise your security settings.

Now, how do you know how secure your details are? There's one simple way - firstly log out of facebook, then do a search on yourself. Next - find somebody who you're not yet "facebook friends" with, and then see how much information they can find on you. Then, find a "facebook friend" and do the same. There are other levels of association, like network members, but you get the idea. If all else fails, create dummy facebook accounts, and test the security of your personal details.

Okay, this all sounds a little convoluted and far-fetched, but my point is this - how aware are you of your online presence? It's naturally understandable to be wary of who you give your personal details to, and you have two choices - withhold the information, or make sure you understand how security settings work on social networking sites. Nowadays, Facebook is an extremely highly-trusted brand, with hundreds of millions of users, but the onus is still on the user to set their level of online security.

Furthermore, this should be an integral part of information literacy training when it comes to social networking. Just as it's important to show students and members of the community how to interact socially and build networks online, it's equally as important to highlight the "stranger danger" principles, and maintain awareness of what information you are providing to whom. It needs to be drummed into everybody, young and old, that whilst creating online content is instantaneous and easy, you need to be smart about the way you do it. A little while ago, Danah Boyd spoke on the importance of being present in kids' lives online, and the scopes for teachers and librarians to provide guidance to students through online social media, in the same way that they would in a classroom or a schoolyard. I really like this idea, and if a student is having issues maintaining privacy or decorum in their online presence, then it would be prudent for a teacher or librarian to be able to interact with them and guide them on how to adjust their privacy settings (even if it means getting themselves filtered out!!).

Anyway, let's say that things have gotten a little out of hand. You've gone a little bit Web 2.0 crazy, and put yourself out there a little too much. Now you're paranoid about your girlfriend/wife seeing photos of you out at the pub last week when you said that you were working late, or worried that your boss will find out about your tweets where you constantly slag off your co-workers. Let's also assume that you haven't really given much thought to the level of security that you've set, and don't really understand it.

Or, even worse, you don't possess enough self-control to limit the amount of time you spend online with social networking sites.

Enter the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine. Basically, here's how it works. You hand over your login details to the organisation. They change your password so that you can't change your mind. And then, apparently, you watch as the program deletes your details.

Now, what was that I was saying before about being careful about who you give your details to?

And yet, here is an organisation that asks you to effectively hand it over to them. What do you know about them? Can you trust them with unlimited access to a complete profile of your personal details, and then allow them to change your password so that you can't access it anymore.

Which brings me to my point, and I will use bold capitals:

IF YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO DELETE YOUR FACEBOOK ACCOUNT, THEN YOU SHOULD FIND OUT. IT'S ACTUALLY VERY SIMPLE.

I don't mean to sound patronising - as a librarian, I'm aware that there can be limitations in people's experience with technology, and sometimes it takes a while to learn.

But IMHO, using software like the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine is about as stupid as giving your bank details to Nigerians. It's a cute concept, with a nice flashy video, but it's misleading and, frankly, encourages people to turn their back on social software, rather than learn to use it effectively and sensibly. It's a bit like telling people to throw away their mobile phone, because you spend too much time having trivial phone calls, rather than learning to exercise self-control.

Furthermore, there's the information literacy issue of being able to evaluate online media, and learn to distinguish between authoritative and trusted sources, and unreliable ones. Just as a student should learn to be able to identify news sources, opinion sources, government sources, educational sources, commercial sources - so too should they learn to know when NOT TO GIVE PERSONAL DETAILS TO COMPLETE STRANGERS.

Unsurprisingly, reports have now come in that Facebook has been blocking access to the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine. Now, of course, it's in their interests to suppress media that encourages people to turn away from facebook, but they also make a very legitimate point - you should not be allowing another person - especially not a complete stranger - to access all your personal details, and go through each section one-by-one. Even if it is for the purpose of deleting them, they are, at the same time, accessing ALL of your personal details.

I think I've made my point.

Finally, if you really want to commit Facebook Suicide (as opposed to simply deactivating your account) then it's very easy. I've done it myself. Just use this link and hit submit. Of course, there's a cooling off period. If you don't trust yourself to not change your mind, find a trusted friend to assist in your suicide. Get them to change your password, and then go to the above link. It's safer, and probably a lot quicker.

It's interesting - the question has recently been posed: "Information literacy and web 2.0: a paradox?" as one of the conference streams in the upcoming ALIA Access 2010 event. In an online environment where one's presence is becoming increasingly customisable, information literacy is arguably more vital than ever, in ensuring that people know exactly what they're doing when they create online content with personal information.

The impending new year

2009-12-31T14:47:00.002+09:30

Okay, so there's a new year coming. I've never been one for new year's resolutions, but it doesn't matter, because I don't need any. I already have new things laid out in front of me, and that means narrowing things down.

Firstly, there'll be a noticeable change in focus for this blog. From tomorrow onward, there will be a distinct focus on school library issues. That includes:

- Middle Reader and Young Adult Literature
- Information Literacy for students
- Usage of online resources in school libraries
- Reader development program delivery in school libraries
- Marketing reading and library services in schools
- Providing professional development for teachers, as the school librarian, particularly in areas such as information literacy and emerging technology
- Forming partnerships with teaching staff in developing coursework that incorporates library services and embeds best practice in research skills
- Introducing emerging online technology into school libraries.

In some ways, it'll still be the same blog, but you probably won't hear much more about public libraries, unless it's in the context of partnerships between public libraries and schools in their communities. Exciting times await.

Until then, I wish you a very enjoyable remainder of 2009, and I'll see you in the new year. Hope it's a happy one. :)

My favourite reads for 2009

2009-12-30T15:23:00.009+09:30

Okay, it's the end of the year, which means that everybody's posting their best-of / worst-of lists in their blogs. In my last post, I indicated some of my favourite reads over the year, but I thought I'd elaborate further, add a few extras... and give a bit of context to the circumstances in which I was reading, which generally adds to the reading experience. Note that these aren't necessarily the "best" reads for 2009, but they have certainly been the most enjoyable for me.

So, without further ado... and in no particular order - my five favourite reads of 2009.

Jarvis 24 - David Metzenthen

This book had been hovering in my periphery early this year, but not really brought to my attention until it appeared on the Inkys Longlist (and, later, the Shortlist). By an amusing coincidence, I started reading it just after I started working regularly at Hawthorn Library, which involved walking down Glenferrie Road, past the local MLC girls flirting with the Xavier boys, and getting regular coffees at Mario's. This enhanced the already-strong sense of place, in the heart of Melbourne's leafy eastern suburbs, and I could see Metzenthen's characters in those around me in my day-to-day life. Plus, it's such an honestly touching read, encapsulating an episode in a teenage boy's life, and the lessons he learns about the world.

Pink - Lili Wilkinson

Just as Simmone Howell did with Notes from the Teenage Underground, this novel took me back to my teenage years in Melbourne. As a high school music & theatre nerd, there were plenty of laugh-out-loud moments which were sometimes uncomfortably close to home, and stirred up more than a few fond memories of midnight sessions at the Valhalla Cinema.

Look Who's Morphing - Tom Cho

Over the last couple of months, I've, on several occasions, had the "Oh, so you've read Tom Cho's book. What did you think of it?" conversation with literary types, as though my very answer would define my future social status in literary circles. I read much of this book whilst travelling through Vanuatu, and I must admit that it added an extra dimension to the slightly-surreal nature of overseas travel. Having grown up through the 80s, I found Look Who's Morphing to be an indulgent romp through my formative pop culture, whilst cleverly subverting it to provide commentary on how we define ourselves through these tropes. As a indulgent-yet-sneakily-profound read, I just love pulling it off my shelf to read passages to visiting friends.

Thinner than Water - Justine Larbalestier (from "Love is Hell")

This was a pleasant surprise for me. I've been a fan of Justine's work for a couple of years now, and this was the first short fiction work of hers that I've read. You can find an excerpt of it here. Following an anglo-celtic tradition in rural fantasy, this story is rich in its language, and sublime in its tragedy.

Hate that cat - Sharon Creech
If you haven't read Love that dog, then go find a copy and read it. Then you'll know exactly why you'll want to read Hate that cat. And it doesn't disappoint. Equally as effective and touching as the first, and cheaper than a double-degree in American poetry and psychotherapy. Lie down on a couch, and read it to yourself out loud. Your neighbours / flatmates might think you're crazy, but it's a wonderful reading experience.

Okay, that'll do. It was hard enough narrowing it down to five.

2009 - the year that was...

2009-12-29T12:30:00.000+09:30

Looking back on 2009, I've blogged about half as much as I have the previous two years. Which isn't hugely surprising, as this year marked my return to Melboure, after two and a half years living in Darwin. In retrospect:

January: Watched rain fall. Worked on my paper for Somerset on how I've made librarianship "work" for me, and wonder if I've been fooling myself. Favourite read: On the Jellicoe Road - Melina Marchetta

February: Had an amazing weekend in Melbourne. Spent time socialising (with librarians), brunching and dancing, then attended a bookgig with Simmone Howell and Justine Larbalestier. Three days later, after returning to Darwin, and spending a morning trying to get to work via unreliable buses and being stranded in monsoon showers, my brain finally broke and I made the decision to move back to Melbourne. Favourite read: Love is Hell - Marr/Westerfeld/Larbalestier/Zevin/Stolarz

March: Packed up my few belongings, and finished up at the Northern Territory Library. Spent a week at the Somerset Celebration of Literature, where I presented my first conference paper, performed in front of a crowd of C&YA writers and publishers, and met and hung out with a bunch of awesome people. Moved to Melbourne, comforted by the knowledge that I'd probably see many of these people around the place a bit more. Favourite read: Unwind - Neal Shusterman (the best YA book that totally slipped under the radar in Australia this year)

April: Started a new life, and new career in Melbourne, working on a Reader Development project at the State Library of Melbourne. Spending time around the Centre for Youth Literature certainly inflamed my love for YA literature, and confirmed what I already knew - that I needed to move into youth librarianship. Also started working rostered weekends as a casual librarian at the City of Boroondara Library Service. Favourite read: Liar - Justine Larbalestier

May: Continued working at SLV, although my work there was coming to completion. Hung around and helped out at the Reading Matters conference, and met some of the world's best (and nicest) contemporary YA writers. Favourite read: The London Eye Mystery - Siobhan Dowd

June: My project work at SLV was over, and with a heap of spare time on my hands, I decided to escape from Melbourne's winter chill, and went to Vanuatu. I visited my "cousin" (and fellow librarian) Romany, who was working as an AYAD volunteer in a remote school library. Favourite read: Look Who's Morphing - Tom Cho

July: In the bleak midwinter... I wasn't so much unemployed, but rather "time-rich". Whilst I kept an eye out for a dream job, nothing much was catching my attention, and I was determine to hold out for something that I could happily stay in for at least a few years. Instead, I spent this month writing and performing a new show at the Butterfly Club. I also volunteered at the Melbourne International Film Festival, and saw many awesome (and some not-so-awesome) fillums. Favourite read: The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

August: The first week was engulfed with MIFF, and then after some much-needed detoxing and sleeping, I returned to SLV to help facilitate the launch of the Inky Awards, and chair a number of panel sessions at the Melbourne Writer's Festival. Finally, I capped off the month with a visit to Darwin at the peak of the dry season, and remind myself that there were still many awesome things about living in Darwin. Favourite read: If I Stay - Gayle Forman

September: With my birthday marking my official existence as a Thirty-something, and my savings starting to dwindle, I started some more serious job-searching-and-applying, although I still listened to my instincts. Fortunately, a temporary opportunity arose to work full-time at the City of Boroondara Library Service, offsetting my impending need to commit to a permanent job. Favourite read: Jarvis 24 - David Metzenthen

October: I've been a librarian for three years now. Disillusionment starts setting in. I question a lot of things, like whether anything of this library stuff really matters, or makes a difference, and whether I'm really ever going to find a job that will engage and fulfil me and my community in the way that I want it to. Favourite read: The Devil's Lexicon - Sara Rees Brennan

November: My full-time work at Boroondara finishes up, and I focus my efforts on polishing up a piece that I've written for the Short + Sweet Cabaret Festival. And although I didn't make the finals, I met quite a few awesome people, and there's always a thrill from getting praise from complete strangers. I get a few job interviews, but no job. Oh, and we get an eviction notice from our landlord. But in spite of all this, life doesn't feel so bad. Especially when the Inky Awards are announced, and we're all reminded about how awesome the world is. Favourite read: Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins

December: Everything changes. I find a new house to move into, and on the day I move, I have a job interview for a position managing a school library, only 15 minutes away from my new house. I get the job. Days later, I have an interview for admission for the Professional Writing & Editing course at RMIT. I get accepted. I visit Sydney and perform at the Annual Cabaret Showcase. Trevor Ashley sees my performance and invites me to perform at Showqueen some time next year. Next year is going to bring its own share of challenges, but I'm ready to take them on, because it's going to be awesome. Favourite read: Things we didn't see coming - Steven Amsterdam

Bring on 2010!

Librarian lifestyles

2009-12-29T10:22:00.005+09:30

At times, it's quite remarkable how librarianship has affected my lifestyle.

To demonstrate:

I'm currently in Adelaide, and instinctively went to the State Library of SA to check my email / social networks and update my blog.

I travelled here from Melbourne with a friend and fellow librarian, on a 3-day road trip along the coast.

Whilst visiting Mount Gambier, we spent at least an hour wandering around their brand new library, with many photos taken (and about 10 minutes spent at the Blue Lake).

On Monday, I ran into a local librarian who I'd met last year in Adelaide and later on at the New Librarians Symposium, and after a late lunch, got invited along to a dinner party.

At dinner, half of those present were librarians. And no, we didn't chat about libraries, cataloguing, or online resources. Much.

But you get the idea. It's so comforting to know that I've chosen a profession that transcends the normal boundaries of a 9-to-5 job. It opens up a social network of such a vibrant range of personalities - those passionate about culture, technology, literature, learning and community. And not just librarians - educators, writers, literary enthusiasts, and those working in community development.

And to think that I was once considering becoming an accountant.

Inky Reflections

2009-11-30T21:21:00.003+09:30

So, last Thursday morning an assorted cast of literary figures, media types and Melbourne intelligentsia congregated at the space-formerly-known-as-CBWI (Pronounced "ka-BWEE"), and officially named the Wheeler Centre, after the founders of Lonely Planet, Tony and Maureen Wheeler.

Whilst this was all well and good, there was another exciting event unfolding literally metres away inside the State Library of Victoria. Over three months, Australian teens were given the opportunity to read and vote for the best Australian and International young adult literature, publishing in Australia over the last financial year.

And, from what I've heard, votes for each book went into the hundreds, and every vote certainly counted - at one point, there were only a handful of votes difference between three of the shortlisted books for the Golden Inky (for best Australian YA book).

So, as you can imagine, waiting to hear the results were excruciating. All shortlisted books were thoroughly deserving. I remember first reading Sherman Alexie's Absolutely True Story of a Part-time Indian, and thinking, "This will win the Inkys next year." But then John Green's Paper Towns came out, and after the 2007 Inky Awards, he was always going to be a strong contender. Mal Peet's Guardan-winning Exposure blended his South American football world with Shakespeare's Othello, and Mariko and Jillian Tamaki's stunning Skim is a unique YA graphic novel. But the Silver Inky went to Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games - a fast-paced adventure set in a dystopian world where teenagers are annually picked to fight in a televised arena deathmatch, where there can only be one winner. It sounds a little cheesy, and potentially unoriginal, but Collins never fails to keep the tension high, and her characters are so engaging that the reader can't help but dread their impending fate with the turn of the page. I've just finished the second book in the trilogy, Catching Fire, and it's equally as compelling - if not moreso. This book takes all the winning elements of The Hunger Games, then raises the stakes again. The story runs at a breakneck pace, careering for doom and disaster. And it doesn't disappoint. Like Patrick Ness's The Ask and the Answer, Catching Fire is a superb second-in-the-trilogy novel, which both satisfies, and leaves us hanging on, nay, begging for the final book, to put us out of our misery.

But I digress. Back to the Inkys.

It was time to announce the Golden Inky winner. Like John Green, 2007 Golden Inky winner Simmone Howell's Everything Beautiful was definitely in the running. Adrian Stirling's compelling debut Broken Glass and Richard Harland's steampunk fantasy Worldshaker both depict very different but cruel and complex worlds. David Metzenthen's Jarvis 24 is a rare treat that delivers an inexplicably honest boy's story of venturing beyond one's comfort zone and learning about the world. Funny, and down to earth, it was a perfect match to Everything Beautiful. But the Golden Inky went to Randa Abdel-Fatah's Where the Streets Had a Name. I read this when it first came out a year ago, and I was struck by how powerful the story was - of a girl living in Israel-occupied Palestine. And yet, not once whilst reading this, did I ever feel that Fattah was using the book as a political platform. And this is where the true strength of this book comes - the human factor - about families living in adverse conditions, and their dreams, joy, love and tragedy. It's not about blame - it's about people getting on with their lives as best they can, because they have to. It has laugh-out-loud moments, as powerful as its eye-dabbing tissue box moments, and a worthy winner of the 2009 Golden Inky Award.

And reflecting on the Inkys for a moment, I'm not only struck by the amazing standard and range of YA literature that's come out in the past year, but by the fact that these books were read and voted for by many hundreds of teenagers across Australia. It's proof that, despite what some people might say about "young people these days", there are still a LOT of teenagers who are passionate about reading, and about sharing their passion with others. Teenagers who are prepared to take a list of books, read them, and then vote for their favourite book - not because a teacher or parent told them to, but because they WANTED to. A friend of mine recently challenged the legitimacy of Young Adult literature as its own category, and she sort of had a valid argument - basically that most young adults are capable of reading adult literature, and that much of it deals with young adult protagonists - why shouldn't it just all be put together with the adult fiction? Surely YA is just a marketing tool to sell books to teenagers and parents who don't know what to read? Surely teenagers should learn to read "good" literature, rather than "age-specific" literature? And I can see where she's coming from. But there's something about YA literature that specifically captures the passion, and the hopes and dreams of young adults - because it was written specifically for them, and at the same time reminds older people like myself of where I came from, and perhaps to draw me back to the path that I started on, to realise my own dreams.

Okay, again I'm digressing, so I'll wrap this up before I get too sentimental and wishy-washy. Congratulations to the winners, shortlisted and longlisted titles for the Inkys. Extra congratulations to the winners and finalists of the Creative Reading Prize. Kudos to the Centre for Youth Literature and the judges for another awesome Inky Awards. And finally, thanks to everybody who read and voted for their favourite book. It's times like these when I know I did the right thing by becoming a librarian, because without programs like this, the world would be a slightly less awesome place.

Getting the 411 on Library 101

2009-10-30T18:47:00.002+09:30

So, as many of you readers will be aware, David Lee King (writer of the highly-recommended-reading Designing the Digital Experience) and Michael Porter (aka Libraryman have just launched a new collaborative project - Library 101.

Without having clicked on anything yet, the title seems to imply that there is fundamental set of skills and knowledge that all librarians should have, and this project is based around defining / redefining that set.

And playing the video... well, it certainly encapsulates the passion and creativity that these prominent figures in the online librarian community are already renowned for. Sure, it's daggy, and it reinforces a few negative stereotypes about librarians being a little dysfunctional in their attempts to be "hip" and "cool" (hey, I should know) but it still managed to stir up enough of a buzz to get noticed by Boing Boing, which is pretty much the geek's equivalent of making it onto Australian Idol.

But, from listening to the lyrics of the song, the gist of it was society has changed, and the roles that libraries play in society has changed, therefore we need to rewrite our "library 101" - that is, our basic skills, to incorporate things like brand marketing, web development, etc in order to keep our profession relevant, otherwise we'll become extinct. I think that was the gist of it. I confess, after about three minutes, I started skipping bits.

Anyway, moving past the sales pitch, I moved into the real heart of this project - a list of 101 Resources and Things to Know. As the aforementioned lyrics suggested, the basics have changed. Which, of course, leads to the question, "Well, what are the new basics - the basic skills that all librarians should have?"

This proposed list, is it. The basics. The absolute minimum set of skills and knowledge that every accredited librarian should have.

And it's a pretty good list. A good list of examples. The only big ones that I feel has been overlooked are reader development and the knowledge and skills required to promote literacy, both in the context of early readers, as well as in addressing illiteracy in adults. But, arguably, these are only important amongst public and school libraries, so they aren't strictly a "101" skill.

Here's my issue, though.

If these are truly the basic essentials, then why aren't they assessed in the coursework that qualifies us as librarians?

And, in terms of continuing professional development, why is this message coming from David and Michael, and not from our professional associations?

Furthermore, if our professional associations announced that all professionals had a year to brush up their skills and get up to scratch with their "library 101", or their professional memberships would be revoked, then memberships would plummet - either out of an unwillingness to adapt, or out of protest.

And whilst this "library 101" represents the basics for people such as David and Michael, the fact is that for the majority of librarians, if they are good at their job, then they already possess their "library 101". Yes, the basics do change, and we change with them. However, our professional is so diverse, that it's unfair for one librarian to judge librarians working in a different library sector. An librarian who is an expert on picture books and developmental child psychology might not necessarily know a thing about hulu or web usability, but that doesn't make them "deficient" in their library skills.

So, with all due respect to David and Michael for their passion and desire to exhibit leadership in the industry - I'd like to suggest an alternate "library 101". It has nothing to do with lists of 23 things, or 101 things, or how many university degree you have. It's just about caring about what you do in your job as a librarian, doing it competently; exercising best practices. These best practices will vary depending on the context of your work, and will change with time.

By all means, expand on your knowledge to include value-adding skills, like web development, or marketing, or creating awesome presentations, or running team building exercises. or learning about the latest Google thing that most people off the street don't use. I mean, even customer service skills are only fundamental to those librarians who work on a reference desk. And there are plenty who don't. These skills will take you a long way. But don't judge other librarians if they don't have them - especially if they don't need them to do their job well. Feel free to share these skills, but allow them to reserve the right to decline and instead focus on honing the skills that their job requires.

This is a library, not a...

2009-10-23T01:04:00.003+09:30

From time to time, I hear the sentiment expressed:

"This is a library, not an x"

where x = one of the following:

a internet cafe
a coffee shop
a video arcade
a child care centre

an the list continues.

In a recent post on the YALSA blog, the library is this time compared to a supermarket - both in the way that it offers its services, and the way that its visitors use the service. It bemoans the habits of young people in using libraries as a place where they just go to grab something - anything - off the shelves, and only when they really need it. A place that you visit briefly to get what you need, but don't stay.

But more and more, we're encouraged to take a retail approach and learn to use marketing strategies in providing library services. To create, not only an information service, but an information experience. That means being able to engage library visitors the moment that they walk in the door, and present them with immediate reading choices through displays of face-out stock. And, realistically, most library visitors aren't time-rich enough to spend an hour or two at the library.

Furthermore, what may strike some observers as being a simple quick-and-easy "supermarket" service, where one walks in and "picks something up" is a little more complicated below the surface.

Back in the 1960s, a children's television show was designed to provide accessible educational viewing for young children. It was innovative for its time, because it introduced the idea of providing high quality education through methods used in television advertising. Child psychologists and educators teamed up with television producers and marketing experts. That show was called Sesame Street.

I think there is sometimes a misconception that taking a more "retail" approach to libraries somehow detracts from the educational value of the service, or ignores the "library science" approach to managing libraries. But they don't necessarily have to be opposing, mutually exclusive forces. Libraries have a valuable product and service - all that a retail approach offers is a more effective way of engaging library visitors.

And just as supermarket shelves are organised to be easily navigated, as well as have the most attractive stock displayed in order to sell as much of their product as possible, so too should libraries use similar strategies to provide ease of access to navigate the collections, and provide clear choices for the many visitors who don't necessarily know what they want, and are just browsing (but only have 10 minutes to find a book to borrow).

And at the same time, provide services that have made other businesses become social hubs for their users, whether it be a coffee shop, or gaming machines, or wireless internet, or board games. No, these things aren't going to lead library users to necessarily read more, any more than a coffee shop in Borders will, but it encourages people to interact socially in the library space, which is somewhat at the heart of building communities.

Questions & Answers

2009-10-15T19:47:00.004+09:30

There have been some interesting responses to last night's post.

Most of them seem to revolve around the idea that membership of a professional association is about providing benefits to the individual member, and it is a case of deciding whether these benefits are worth the several hundred dollars a year for membership.

Essentially, the question is, "What's in it for me if I join?"

Similarly, as part of a strategy to retain membership and actively respond to the needs of members, ALIA regularly conducts a member's survey. They also address areas of concern to members through hosting a national advisory congress, where members can tell the professional association what they want.

Put simply, the professional association is asking it's professionals, "What do you want us to do for you?"

But here's the thing. A professional association isn't a service provider. It's not a matter of give and take. And it's certainly not a question of "getting your money's worth". I think that anybody who sees professional membership in that way has severely missed the point.

No, the question that's first and foremost in my mind when it comes to joining an association - be it a professional association, or a community group, or a special interest club, is "Who else is active in this association?"

Other questions that arise from there are:

What opportunities will there be for me to actively participate in my association?
How will this professional activity help promote the professional industry?
Will I get to feel like I'm a part of something that's important to the profession, and play an active role in defining its presence in the industry?
What opportunities will I get to work together with other professionals, in achieving our collective goals - as a profession? Not self-serving goals, but rather the principles on which the profession is based - on providing access to information, facilitating its free-flow, building socially-inclusive communities, and promoting lifelong learning.

The answer? The professional association can't do these things for you. But you can do these things through active membership in the professional association.

Of course, I know that not everybody got into librarianship for these reasons. For some people, they thought it would be an easy job in a quiet workplace. But I'm pretty sure that nobody got into this industry for the high-paying salaries. Like other professions, such as teaching or nursing, you gotta do it because you're passionate about it, or you're just going to end up hating your job and wasting your life.

And a professional association, above all, creates the opportunity to form a closeknit professional community across the industry. Maybe the reason I've felt jaded is that it's only been six months since I've moved back to Melbourne, and haven't found the opportunities to fall into a similarly active professional community as I did when I was in Darwin. Maybe I expect too much. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong place. Maybe my timing is just wrong. But these things can all change.

But hey, I'm here. And I've renewed my membership for my professional association.

Crisis of Faith

2009-10-14T19:35:00.003+09:30

I haven't renewed my ALIA membership for this year. Not yet, anyway.

I mean, six months earlier, I would have renewed it in a heartbeat, but there are a few things that don't sit quite right with me. In fact, I've been on the verge of letting my membership lapse completely, and resigning from the committees that I'm currently in. I've tried to put it into words as eloquently as possible, but up until now, words have failed me. This is about the third time that I've tried to write a post on it, and hopefully I'll get it right.

There is an idea of what a librarian should be. A Library and Information Professional. Yes, I will use capitals. One who is an expert in the field of information management, as accredited through university study, and through continuing professional development. One who upholds principles that are fundamental to professional practice.

And central to all of this is the Professional Association. The Professional Association dictates the terms in which one becomes accredited and qualified to call themself a member. The Professional Association dictates the overbearing principles of the industry. The Professional Association thus represents its members - The Profession.

In this case, The Profession is Librarianship. The Professional Association is ALIA.

But what happens when a substantial proportion of librarians in the industry aren't members of ALIA?

What happens when ALIA takes a stance that some of its members don't agree with. Are such members being "unprofessional"?

What happens when library employers increasingly see professional accreditation as something that is optional, and other areas of professional specialisation are more valuable, where once upon a time it was the sole realm of the librarian?

What happens when professional conferences showcase innovations and success stories that many libraries will never make a reality?

I think the idea of the Professional Association can a misleading one, as is the idea of The Profession. These ideas imply a certain authority - be it based on academic traditions in library science or just a culture of educated classes maintaining control of cultural collections. And whilst the education is still highly regarded by employers in the recruitment of librarians, it seems that professional membership and professional activity through the Professional Association is not. Is this due to apathy and indifference? A lack of faith in the Professional Association?

And I wonder, what's the point in being active in the Professional Association?

Am I representing the entire new generation of Library Professionals when I sit on the ALIA New Generation Advisory Committee? Does the ALIA New Graduates Group provide the necessary services to newly-graduated members of The Profession?

More importantly, is there a point to it all, when many librarians in the industry aren't members of ALIA, and current membership is dropping?

I believe in the importance of a professional association for librarians.
I believe in the importance of a communal point in the profession, for ideas to come together.
I believe in importance for a body that will advocate for the principles that the profession was built on, and those that the profession has since adopted and will in the future.

I believe in the importance for a professional association that all librarians will want to become members of.

The only problem is - I don't know what they are. The library world is so diverse these days that it's hard to picture a collective vision for the industry as a whole. And it seems misleading to ask members "What do you want from your association?" More importantly should be the question, "What opportunities do you want for you, as a librarian, to contribute to your association?"

And that's pretty much the heart of it - for me, the value in a professional association comes from its active membership. The opportunity to be part of a vibrant professional culture, that is representative of the industry. The opportunities to interact with one's professional peers in sharing ideas, celebrating successes, and collectively tackling challenges. To create professional forums for subverting outdated paradigms and being agents for change in a time where the nature of information has never been more diverse and dynamic.

But I'm not feeling it at the moment. And I know I'm not the only one. There's a feeling in the air that many library professionals - at least New Graduates - aren't as passionate as they used to be. There isn't the same kind of buzz on the e-list as there once was. In some states, there aren't even any New Graduate events. And that's not for a lack of new graduates. Are people less inclined to get professionally active in this day and age? I know that it's a time of Global Financial Crisis, but surely this is one way to get an edge by being professionally aware? Right?

If you're a librarian reading this right now, what would it take for you to offer to help organise an event for your professional association? Or even attend one? Or are the naysayers right after all, and most librarians couldn't care less about their association, as long as they have a job.

---

But back to my initial dilemma - to renew or not to renew. Yes, it's quite a bit of money. And no, there aren't enough events on in the next 12 months through which I can hope to get my membership's worth through discounts (always an incentive).

However, if I leave the Professional Association, I'll just be another seemingly apathetic librarian, and I refuse to believe that there aren't enough other librarians out there who want to get active and collaborate, and get that buzz happening again.

Is anybody with me?

Professional anniversary navel-gazing...

2009-10-06T21:53:00.004+09:30

So over the last couple of weeks, there have been a few things that I've wanted to blog about, but haven't done so because (a) I seem to have found myself working full-time hours at the moment, and (b) my other non-sleeping hours have been spent seeing a few things at the Melbourne Fringe Festival.

The first of these things I wanted to blog about was the occurrence of the ALIA National Advisory Congress, which focused, this year, on issues of advocacy and lobbying. However, that's going to be a long post in itself, and I haven't quite gathered my thoughts on the topic. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, last week, I reached a personal milestone - three years since I started working as a librarian. Quickly reflecting on where I was this time over the past three years:

October 2006 - I started my first professional position as a liaison librarian at Charles Darwin University.
October 2007 - I started working as a part-time branch manager in a small public library in Darwin
October 2008 - I'm working as a librarian at the Northern Territory Library, providing reference and research services, as well as parliamentary support.

And now?

Well, I tell people that I'm "freelance" at the moment, which might sound like a wanky way of saying that I don't have a permanent job. However, over the last six months, I've been working in a number of non-librarian positions (whilst being a relief librarian on weekends) and am learning new skills and gaining new experience that I would never have achieved if I'd stayed strictly in a librarian role. I'm now living in Australia's City of Literature - Melbourne - and building strong professional networks in areas of the industry that I want forge my career for the long-term. And, most importantly, I know now, more than ever, what I want to do with my career. And whilst I don't currently have long term employment security, I'm feeling far more secure, professionally, than ever.

And central to this is moving away from the misconception that career planning is about working out which employed position you want to be in, say, in two years time, five years time, and ten years time (ie. "I want to be a HEW 7 in two years, a team leader in five years, and a director in ten.")

Instead, we should be asking ourselves questions like what skills we will have, which organisations and key players we will have formed relationships with, what kind of technological expertise we will have adopted, what areas of specialisation we will become authorities on, whom we will become advocates for, which communities we will be serving, and so on.

And if that means holding off permanent employment until the right job comes along, then so be it.

On being a "job snob"...

2009-09-22T22:57:00.004+09:30

"Job snob". I first heard the term a few months ago when apparently some politicians urged Gen Y to stop being Job Snobs and face the fact that in this current financial crisis, they should settle for whatever job they can get.

Whilst this seems to be yet another example of assuming Gen Y of being lazy, over-privileged brats, this "advice" from our nation's leaders seems to go completely against every piece of career advice I've gotten. Mostly along the lines of never taking a "backward step" in one's career, and always knowing what you're worth. And no, I've never actually gotten career advice form a Gen Y'er.

Anyway, this evening, I went along to an event run by the ALIA New Graduates Group, on Job Interview techniques - mostly because I'm the Convenor of the group, but also because I was curious to see if there was anything particularly outlandish that jobseekers were being told these days.

And there were certainly a few recurring themes, and a few interesting ideas that stuck.

1. Know what you want and, more importantly, why you want the job that you're being interviewed for. "Because I really need a job!" isn't really good enough. If you don't see yourself staying there for more than six months, then you probably don't really want it, and you're just wasting your own time and theirs.

However, 2. Be honest. If the only reason you want the job is because you need a source of income, then it's better to say that, rather than lie and say that you love working with pre-school children when, in fact, you hate it. You might not get the job, but it's better than getting the job and having to do pre-school storytime when you really hate small children.

3. Don't be afraid to withdraw your application. Even if it's halfway through an interview. Employers will respect your honesty and professionalism and, more importantly, your desire not to waste their time, or your own.

4. Ask intelligent questions. Find out the history of the position, whether it's been newly created, an amalgam of previous positions, and why it was created, or why the previous person left the position. Find out about the kind of people you'll be working with - colleagues, superiors, stakeholders. Ask about the organisation's strategic direction, and get a sense of their vision and how you might be able to contribute to it.

These kinds of questions will help you answer the real question - Do you really want to work here? - and, again, don't be afraid to walk away if the answer turns out to be a resounding NO.

5. Have some creative answers. A textbook answer is not impressive enough to get you a job. Employers want to see if you can think outside the square. You also need to demonstrate your personality, as employers want to get an idea of your cultural fit within the workplace. Things like enthusiasm, positivity and open-mindedness are essential in making an impression. Of course, central to all of this is actually caring about the job that you're applying for and, again, knowing why you want to work there, in order that you can actually provide a thoughtful answer.

This has all been invaluable advice for jobseeking in general, and I thought it was interesting to hear from library-related employers that they value the importance of being a discerning jobseeker, and knowing what you want from your career. And I guess it's as much in the library's interests as the employee's to recruit somebody who knows what they want, rather than somebody who has the right answers. And that the interview is not so much about getting the "right" or "wrong" answers, but rather seeing how the applicant responds to a question, and getting a sense of how they think.

And on an interesting note, one of the speakers did a quick hand survey of what library jobs people were looking to get into. When he mentioned academic libraries, most hands shot up. When he mentioned publics - not so much. This intrigued me a little - I have to say that I've gotten far more job satisfaction working in public and state libraries than I ever did in an academic library. Then again, perhaps I haven't worked in the right academic library yet.

So, should we be "job snobs" when it comes to our career? Well, I think the label is a bit of a misnomer. I don't think anybody really expects their "dream job" to fall in their lap. But, certainly, they need to identify that dream job, and have a realistic plan to get there, whether it be by finding an entry level position with one's "dream employer" and moving up internally, or getting enough relative experience through other jobs, in order to move sideways into said "dream job".

There's nothing "snobby" about being strategic with one's career, and Gen Y are certainly not the first generation to be career-focused.

Taking the "young" out of YA Fiction...

2009-09-11T09:27:00.003+09:30

I recently visited a Melbourne public library and, as usual, my first port of call was for the Young Adult section. Upon entering the library, I looked around. Yes, there was the Children's section, with Picture Books, Early Readers, and Junior Fiction, to my left. Adult Fiction to my right. Public access computer terminals straight ahead.

But no Young Adult Fiction section in sight. Nothing to indicate "teenagers". Not even a "Twilight" poster to guide the way.

I wandered upstairs to the non-fiction collection, on the off-chance that there was a designated YA area, that had been put in a special, out-of-the-way place to give "young people these days" a slightly noisier place to hang out. I did find a "games room" - a tiny dark room, with a games console and TV inside, and a big sign on the door that said "This room is under video surveillance". But no books.

Finally, like most people who use libraries, I opted for my last resort. I asked the librarian.

"Oh, we interfile them with Adult Fiction," she informed me, somewhat sympathetically, "You might want to know the name of the author that you're looking for."

I revisited the Adult Fiction aisles, and sure enough, there they were - John Green next to Kate Grenville, Suzanne Collins next to Wilkie Collins, Maureen McCarthy next to Cormac McCarthy. It certainly struck me as being unconventional, and I wondered why a library would bury its young adult literature amongst the adult literature.

And sure, I can see the arguments for it. There is a lot of crossover between YA fiction and Adult fiction, both in its content and their readers. It creates a distinct divide between "safe" books, (ie. primary and middle school-aged) which would be shelved in the Junior section, and books containing ideas that might be considered "unsafe" by some, due to themes of sexuality, substance abuse, politics, etc. This also acts as a defence against parents who might object to such literature being held by the library, with a reply of "oh, but we shelve them amongst the adult books." And some might say that it also prevents have a so-called "young adult ghetto" in the library.

But at the same time, what is the library saying to young adults who visit the library, when there isn't a designated area for them, highlighting the best in young adult fiction that they can borrow? Whilst there is a substantial crossover between YA and Adult fiction, it cannot be denied that there is also a strong crossover between YA and Junior fiction. This is something that makes YA fiction so unique - a literal embodiment of adolescence and all that it evokes. And what of teenagers who are reluctant readers? What hope do they have to finding that elusive book, when they need to sift through shelves of adult fiction in the hope of finding a YA book that engages them? What hope is there of luring them into reading when there's such a barrier in their way?

But maybe I'm overreacting a little here. I'm curious to know what you think - do you think mixing YA and adult literature together makes sense, or should they be kept to their own collections?

The world's oldest library spaces...?

2009-09-09T18:40:00.005+09:30

A few weeks ago, I spent a week up in Darwin, to thaw out from the Melbourne cold, and enjoy the local festivities, particularly the last few days of the Festival of Darwin.

However, whilst I was up there, it had occurred to me that, in the two and a half years that I was living up there, I had never visited Kakadu National Park. I'd visited other places, such as Berry Springs, Litchfield National Park, and even Katherine Gorge, but never Kakadu. I guess it had been because (a) I figured that it'd be crawling with tourists, and (b) it was a few hours away, and you needed to spend a couple of days out there to make the most of it.

However, I found myself in Darwin with two days to kill, so I hired a car, woke up with the sun, and drove out to Jabiru - the main township that is located in the middle of the national park. My hotel was shaped like a crocodile.

After visiting the visitor centre, and working out where everything was, I headed south to Nourlangie Rock. I was fortunate enough to catch one of the ranger's talks at Anbangbang Shelter, and she talked about this history of the site. In the tropical heat of the Top End, the rocky outcrops of Stone Country provided nature's air-conditioning, and this was the first thing I noticed as I entered the shelter - it was nice and cool and you completely forgot that you were up in the tropics. The shelter was used by the local indigenous people predominantly during the wet season, when the floodlands were inundated, and shelter was needed from the rain.

Other than being an obvious place for shelter, there were other signs that the place had been inhabited for generations. The rocks on the ground were dotted with small round bowl-shaped hollows - the result of thousands of years of grinding local seeds and lily-root for making food.

And, on the walls, was the rock art. Rock art provided a number of purposes. Firstly, it acted like a menu for the area. It let people know what food you were able to find locally. This was apparent, both at Nourlangie, as well as Ubirr, which I visited later on.

Secondly, it was a way of storytelling and preserving their culture. There were a number of dreaming sites, where indigenous people went to learn the various dreamings, and it's interesting to note that, whilst many consider Australian Indigenous cultures to be a "oral tradition", the visual is also very much a part of the storytelling tradition, whether it be through rock art, or bark paintings, etc. A dreaming such as the Rainbow Serpent, as shown below (located at Ubirr), provides not only the basis for preserving culture through storytelling, but also dictates the cultural laws that are necessary both for survival in a somewhat-hostile environment, but also to maintain social harmony within indigenous nations, through kinship laws.

And, of course, the librarian in me noted: Aren't these all things that libraries aim to do in this day and age? Provide safe and inclusive community spaces. Provide opportunities for the free flow of information and preservation of culture and knowledge, whether it be local mythology and storytelling and / or the local knowledge, and "secret business" (there were places in Kakadu that I wouldn't be able to visit, due to secret women's business, etc). To create a space where somebody can express themselves. To be able to immortalise yourself through the act of making a hand-print on a rock that would remain for thousands of years, through which time civilisations have risen and crumbled.

Most importantly, it's been through these sites that Australian indigenous culture has remained alive for thousands, if not tens of thousands of years. Some of the sites have been dated as having been used by local people for at least 20,000 years, but possibly up to 60,000 years. And it's the same dreaming that is being taught in indigenous communities these days.

For a culture to be maintained for that period of time is awe-inspiring. It highlights the importance of the relationship between a place and its community, and how strong communities can maintain a culture of storytelling. I wonder if our current library spaces will have the same role in preserving modern culture, when people look back at us thousands of years from now.

Melbourne Writer's Festival

2009-08-25T22:18:00.004+09:30

One of the main reasons I moved back to Melbourne was to be more in touch with the literary scene, and through fortunate circumstances of timing, I found myself being offered the opportunity to chair a number of panel sessions at the Melbourne Writer's Festival, representing the Centre for Youth Literature in supporting the Schools Program at the festival.

So, over the last couple of days, I was involved in the following sessions...

Tomorrow, Today with Kirsty Murray

Kirsty spoke about her new novel, "Vulture's Gate" which, I might add, I read recently, and it's a fast-paced, action-packed read, with some very lovely moments of poignancy, and explores an impressive range of themes that she's managed to fit into under 250 pages. Amusing moment: Kirsty asking an audience of teenager what the different between girls and boys were, and watching them either blush or smirk... ah, the awkwardness of youth... ;)

Shakespeare's World with Andy Griffiths and Tony Thompson

WIth a full audience in the cavernous space of The BMW Edge, the first thing I noticed when looking at the crowd was the range of students from 8 to 18. However, just as Shakespeare is, as Ben Johnson stated "for all time", then Andy Griffiths and Tony Thompson were for all ages. and what ensued was a delightful-yet-informative glimpse at the blatant violence and blatant silliness that can be found in Shakespeare, which is vital in keeping its hold in the English Canon.

Fitting In with Randa Abdel-Fattah

Speaking to an intimate, yet full, room, Randa talked about growing up as a palestinian-muslim teenager, and how her books explored the issues of identity, and provided characters that broke the unfortunate stereotype that has been present in the media - such as the "muslim women must be oppressed if they wear the veil" and "all muslims must be terrorists" misconceptions. We also chatted about her life, muslim portrayal in the media, and the emergence of the "burqini" at the beach.

Place, In Space with Scott Westerfeld and Anthony Eaton

Making the most of the ACMI cinema space, both writers presented imagery of the settings for their novels - Anthony's "Into White Silence" and Scott's upcoming "Leviathan". What ensued was a captivating adventure through other worlds, both real and imagined, and the ways in which the landscape really becomes a character in itself when writing.

Blogging, Nerds, and the Art of Cool with Andrew McDonald

Finally, Andrew and I spent the session with a meandering conversation about his book, and the world of blogging, online communities, fandom, the dangers of spreading lies on blogs, and how to not become an internet celebrity. Amusing moment: I made the comment that, unlike these days, I remember a time when Doctor Who wasn't cool, to which most of the audience mumbled "It's not!" *sigh*

I've had some fantastic time chatting on stage with writers, and I'm looking forward to spending a bit of time tomorrow attending the festival as an audience member.

So, dear readers, have you had a chance to attend anything at the Melbourne Writer's Festival yet? Are there any highlights that you've had, or that you're looking forward to? Leave comments! :)

Book Idol!

2009-08-22T23:39:00.001+09:30

It's been an action-packed week for children's and young adult literature, with the Inky Awards being launched on Thursday Night, the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards being announced the Melbourne Writer's Festival also kicking off on Friday, and Kirsty Murray's latest novel, Vulture's Gate, launched today. Next week promises to also be action packed, with appearances at the Melbourne Writers Festival by Scott Westerfeld, China Mieville, Andy Griffiths, Morris Gleitzman, Anthony Eaton, Isobelle Carmody, Melina Marchetta, Justine Larbalestier, Kirsty Murray, Randa Abdel-Fattah, Simmone Howell, Alice Pung, Julia Lawrinson, Gabrielle Wang, and many others whose names I can't recall right now, but deserve mention. Exciting times in Melbourne...

However, over at the City of Boroondara Library Service, there have been a series of children's literature events, which culminated last Tuesday in "Book Idol" where young readers were able to vote for their favourite children's book. Now, it's one thing for a panel of experts to judge the excellence of children's literature, but the true test ultimately lies with the readers, and here are the results...

1st. Once, Morris Gleitzman

2nd. The graveyard book, Neil Gaiman

3rd. The Dark is rising, Susan Cooper

4th. The arrival, Shaun Tan

5th. Amelia Dee and the peacock lamp, Odo Hirsch

6th. A rose for the ANZAC boys, Jackie French

Equal 7th. Wish pony, Catherine Bateson & Evil genius, Catherine Junks

Equal 9th. Dragonkeeper, Carole WIlkinson & A ghost in my suitcase, Gabrielle Wang

It's great to see a line-up of almost all Australian authors... and a pleasant surprise to see The Dark Is Rising up there. It's one of those wonderful books that I personally thought would suffer from being dated but, clearly, still loved by young readers...

Inky Awards launched!

2009-08-20T17:03:00.003+09:30

This afternoon, the 2009 Inky Awards were launched!

A veritable crowd of teachers, librarians, students, and readers crammed into an Elluminate online session, to hear esteemed author and 2008 Golden Inky Award winner James Roy speak about the Inky Awards, which was followed by the announcement of the Inkys Longlist.

For those who missed it, you can watch a recording of it here.

Or, if you just want to go straight to the longlist, here it is...

GOLDEN INKY

My Candlelight Novel - Joanne Horniman

Screw Loose - Chris Wheat

Worldshaker - Richard Harland

Two Pearls of Wisdom - Alison Goodman

Everything Beautiful - Simmone Howell

Where the Streets Had a Name - Randa Abdel-Fattah

Broken Glass - Adrian Stirling

Jarvis 24 - David Metzenthen

White Silence - Anthony Eaton

The Beginner’s Guide to Living - Lia Hills

SILVER INKY

The 10pm Question - Kate de Goldi

Girl at Sea - Maureen Johnson

Paper Towns - John Green

Love, Aubrey - Suzanne La Fleur

Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian - Sherman Alexie

If I Stay - Gayle Forman

The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

Ten Mile River - Paul Griffin

Skim - Mariko & Jillian Tamaki

Exposure - Mal Peet

What do you think? Have you read any of the listed titles, and particularly enjoyed any of them? Was there a title that you thought was overlooked? Feel free to leave comments.

The 2009 Inky Awards

2009-08-17T14:44:00.003+09:30

Yes, it's that time of the year again... the 2009 Inky Awards!

For the uninitiated, the Inky Awards are Australia's only choice award for young adult literature. Twenty books, published in the previous financial year, are announced as the Inkys Longlist - ten Australian books for the Gold Inky Award, and ten International books for the Silver Inky Award.

Of these books, five from each category will be selected by a panel of judges, and then the voting lines will open, and Australia's teenagers are invited to vote for their favourite book. The book with the most votes wins the Inky Award!

This Thursday, at 1:15pm (AEST), the 2009 Inky Awards will be launched online, and you are welcome to attend! I will be chairing the proceedings, 2008 Gold Inky winning author James Roy will be speaking, and then the 2009 Inky Longlist will be announced.

That sounds great, but how do I attend the launch?

I'm glad you asked! All you need is a computer with a decent internet connection, a current browser with Java installed, and computer speakers.

Firstly, register your attendance on the form here.

Then, before the day, check your system's compatability here. Click on "Configuration Room" to check that your connection and speakers. The first time that you enter Elluminate, it may take a while to download onto your system (up to about 10 minutes) but it will be much faster next time you log in.

Finally, on Thursday, click the Elluminate link that you were given when you registered. Create a name for your login session, then click "Login".

Then sit back, and enjoy the launch. You can contribute comments to the session by typing in the Chat field.

In the meantime, if you're not sure of what to expect with Elluminate, you can watch a recording of a last year's session, where we discussed the 2008 Inkys, by clicking here.

And if you want to know more about the Inky Awards, check out the Centre for Youth Literature's website, inside a dog.

Hope to see you all there online on Thursday! :)

A National Framework for Public Libraries...

2009-07-29T18:36:00.002+09:30

I was rather impressed recently, when the Australian Library and Information Association announced last week that they were going to develop a National Framework for Public Libraries, which would coincide with a new initiative from ALIA in developing National Standards for the provision of public libraries in Australia.

Now, I love public libraries, as you will already know. And one thing I'm very passionate about is setting consistent standards of quality and professionalism in public libraries. There is an unfortunate attitude amongst many in the community that you don't get a professional service from a public library, and that it's basically a 2nd-rate public service that you wouldn't expect to get anything of quality from. For many young / professional people in the community, they wouldn't even THINK about going to the public library for anything.

There is also an all-too-unfortunate attitude amongst many library and information professionals in the academic and research industries that public librarians aren't "real" librarians, in terms of professional practices of library and information sciences. It's also unfortunate that these attitudes are often reinforced by the growing trend in public libraries of doing away of the "Eligible for Associate Membership of ALIA" when it comes to librarian roles.

And I will happily concede that the completion of an accredited course in librarianship shouldn't be mandatory in public libraries (or many libraries) in order for the librarian to provide a professional service. Professional accreditation, after all, has always been more about being accountable with an assessed evidence of professional knowledge, but there are other ways in which this can also be achieved, such as transferable skills and industry experience, combined with on-the-job training.

However, this is certainly a bone of contention across many a public library service, and it will be interesting to see how it is addressed by ALIA in establishing national workforce standards in the public library sector.

I also love how some public libraries are extremely pro-active in innovation and social inclusion, and incorporating these elements into national standards would be a fine move in raising the bar for other libraries who may, perhaps, miss the mark in terms of customer service, community building, and online engagement. I realise that resources can be tight, and you can be worked off one's feet just in managing library circulation and acquisition workflow, let alone doing all that other "extra" stuff. But it could be the justification that some library services need to point out to their directors where their services are falling short of the bar.

I also really look forward to seeing which other bodies are consulted in developing these guidelines, such as PLA, PLVN, PLNT, as well as the statewide public library projects that are run by the State Libraries.

I'm really excited at the prospect of all this, and that such a positive direction has come out of the ALIA Public Libraries Summit. I can't wait to see where this leads...

Parallel Importation... a conversation with myself.

2009-07-17T23:21:00.003+09:30

Thanks for your comments, guys. They've been food for thought. And yes, it's something that I've been thinking about quite a bit lately.

So, here's the conversation that I'm having in my head. On one side, we have Andrew-the-literature-buff, who cares about the Australian literary industry. On the other side, we have Andrew-the-librarian, who wants books to be cheaper, and therefore more accessible to the Australian people.

Librarian: Books cost too much! Rah!

Lit-buff: Yes, they do. What's your point?

Librarian: Well, books are so much cheaper overseas! Why can't we get them here?

Lit-buff: Well you can, but wouldn't you rather support Australian publishers and authors.

Librarian: But they charge too much for books. if we get rid of Parallel Importation Restrictions (PIRs), then books will be cheaper.

Lit-buff: Um, no. PIRs have no bearing on the actual cost of the production of Australian books.

Librarian: But the Australian publishing industry have a monopoly on the Australian market. Bringing in some competition will surely drive down the cost of locally-produced books, yes?

Lit-buff: It's possible. It's also possible that the Australian book industry can't afford to reduce the prices of locally-produced books to compete with the international market. Especially if they are allowed to compete on our turf, but we can't compete on theirs because their countries are retaining their PIRs.

Librarian: But there would still be cheaper books!

Lit-buff: UK and US editions of books, whereby your money would go to US and UK publishers, and a smaller royalty to the author.

Librarian: They're not *that* much different. And really, the question of royalties shouldn't come into this argument. That's up to the author and the publisher to negotiate. If they go for a crappy book deal, that's their problem.

Lit-buff: I can't believe you actually said that.

Librarian: No, neither can I. My point is that the outcome of this recommendation *shouldn't* affect how much authors are being paid. Their books will be sold, one way or another. And they might get paid less per overseas copy of their book, but if they are cheaper books, it is likely that they will sell more books. It all evens out, right?

Lit-buff: You don't sound so sure. Besides, you've totally avoided the issue of Australian editions being replaced by overseas editions. They're NOT the same. The language is subtly different. They're representative of a society that isn't our own.

Librarian: Not substantially. I mean, yes, when it comes to some spellings. But the Macquarie English Dictionary accepts most American spellings as Australian nowadays. Stop being a linguistic pedant and get with the program!

Lit-buff: Okay, fine, you can have that one. But I'm still not convinced that the removal of PIRs won't result in the demise of smaller publishing houses and independent booksellers.

Librarian: That's capitalism, baby. Why should some have it easier, at the expense of the consumer? Open up the market and let some healthy competition even things out. Sure, there will be some victims, but the market will be healthier for it.

Lit-buff: That's bullshit. You made that up, didn't you?

Librarian: *sigh* Yes.

Lit-buff: So, what you're saying is that selling out our book industry to the international market is worth the chance to have cheaper books from overseas, even if it means possibly reducing the already-pitiful income of writers, putting smaller publishers and booksellers out of business, and minimising the opportunities for new and emerging writers to get published. Whilst, at the same time, we will undoubtedly boosting business for overseas publishers and writers. The benefits for overseas publishers for writers are absolutely certain, whereas the future of our own Australian literary culture will be uncertain.

Librarian: ...

Lit-buff: But the people who have the most to gain from these recommendations aren't the Australian people. It's the multi-national corporations who can afford to drop prices whilst still maximising their profit margins by flooding the market with cheap leftovers from overseas. The Australian people might be paying less than before, but their money will be going straight into the pockets of corporate profiteers, and not the Australian creative industry.

Librarian: Look... all I'm saying is that we shouldn't have to pay more for a book here in Australia than people do over in the UK and the US. That's all I care about. That's my issue.

Lit-buff: Well my issue is that removing PIRs doesn't actually deal with that problem.

Librarian: Okay, I'll agree with you there. So, why is it exactly that books are more expensive here than overseas? They have Parallel Importation Restricts over there too.

Lit-buff: I have no idea. However, it seems to me that there are probably more constructive ways to regulate the price of books, other than by simply trying to force prices down by bringing in overseas competition which will close down any businesses who simply cannot compete, and force writers to try to get international publishing deals if they hope to be able to sell their books in their own country.

Librarian: Ugh, that sounds way too complicated to even try to contemplate. I guess I'll settle for more expensive books. Better the devil you know, after all.

Lit-buff: Hey, you're a librarian. You know better than most that you don't actually *have* to buy books to read them - you can borrow them at the public library. In fact, the very existence of public libraries means that you shouldn't need to have an opinion in this matter, as a librarian.

Librarian: Somebody over at ALIA co-produced a submission on the matter. I thought it was relevant to my profession. Now, I'm not so sure. However, as a librarian, I'm also keen to promote and preserve our literary cultural heritage.

Lit-buff: Even if it means paying more for Australian books?

Librarian: Yes.

Lit-buff: Good. Then we're agreed.

*GROUP HUG*

*Andrew goes to sleep*

On Parallel Importation...

2009-07-16T14:37:00.003+09:30

Now, there's been a lot of angst circulating about the recent recommendations that were made by the Productivity Commission, in regards to the Copyright Restrictions on the Parallel Importation of books.

Up until yesterday, I was utterly convinced that the recommendations were a Bad Thing. This was after seeing many writers blog on the issue, such as this post on Lili Wilkinson's blog, which I felt summed up the situation quite nicely.

Basically, if these restrictions were to be abolished, our local industry would be undercut by an international industry who can afford to sell them at cheaper prices and therefore put local publishers out of business. For local authors who rely on local publishers to produce their books, and don't have the profile / success to make it on an international stage, this creates a further barrier toward getting published. Furthermore, we wouldn't be able to read Australian versions of literature written by Australian authors. And, finally, cheaper books mean that authors don't get paid as much in royalties.

Now, I feel strongly about supporting the Australian literary industry. Yes, books cost money. However, in the scheme of things, books are better value for money than most forms of entertainment. We're talking about the equivalent cost of going out and having a meal. And if you can't afford that for books, we have public libraries, which will cost you nothing.

So, yesterday, I was a little surprised when I started seeing people in my social network making positive comments about the PC's recommendations, saying that this was a good thing. Who were these people? These people were librarians. And then I received an email from the Australian Library and Information Association - of whom I am a proud card-carrying member - drawing attention to the recommendations, and also highlighting ALIA's own recommendations which contributed to this result.

And so I had a look at ALIA's submission, and I was intrigued to find that ALIA supports the removal of restrictions on parallel importation, based on the following statements:

The restrictions are not needed in order to provide creators with further incentive to create and innovate.

The restrictions are not needed in order to provide local publishers with incentive to invest in creative endeavour.

The restrictions should be considered as a competition issue, and not a copyright issue.

Basically, the current issue is that, on an international market, Australian consumers are paying too much for books. This is creating an inequality, whereby books are more accessible to those who can (a) afford it, or (b) have the knowhow to get books from overseas. Consumers in Australia should be able to go to the bookstore and pay the same amount of money as consumers in the UK or the US.

And, speaking as a librarian who believes in social equality, social inclusion and accessibility to literature, this is an option that we need to seriously consider. The majority of literary culture in our society is from an international market. Australian literature aside, why should we be paying substantially more for international literature that is locally published when we can import a cheaper version?

So, my question is this: is there a way of opening up the market, and making books more accessible (ie. cheaper) without (a) compromising the creative integrity of Australian writers, and (b) putting our local industry out of business? Is it naive to think that overseas publishers will respect an international audience when exporting books to Australia (especially if they are exporting Australian literature INTO Australia?

One thing seems obvious - if we are to remove restrictions on parallel importation, then there also need to be new measures also brought in to protect our writers. We can't just pass this motion, and expect the other to follow, just because it's theoretically possible.

I'd be curious to hear what you think, writers and librarians (and publishers?) alike...

Has the world changed, or have I changed?

2009-07-14T00:52:00.003+09:30

I have to say that, after seeing what Australia voted for on Triple J, I feel the need to compose my own list, in no particular order, of songs that should have made the hottest 100 of all time...

I mean, yes, I do understand that the whole *point* of having a popular vote is that not everything is going to make it, but there is so much good stuff out there, that is better than a third of what made the final list. Here is my list of songs which I feel have either been overlooked, or, worse still, completely forgotten...

1. Echo and the Bunneymen - The Killing Moon
2. Lou Reed - Perfect Day
3. They Might Be Giants - Birdhouse In Your Soul
4. The Smiths - There is a Light that Never Goes Out
5. The Boys Next Door - Shivers
6. The Church - Under the Milky Way
7. Do Re Mi - Man Overboard
8. R.E.M - Losing My Religion
9. Prince - When Doves Cry
10. Elvis Costello - Alison
11. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - The Ship Song
12. Grandmaster Flash - The Message
13. Talking Heads - Psycho Killer
14. U2 - With or Without You
15. The Doors - The End
16. David Bowie - Heroes
17. Portishead - Glory Box
18. NWA - Straight Outta Compton
19. Velvet Underground - Sunday Morning
20. The Pixies - Debaser
21. The Cure - Lullaby
22. Soft Cell - Tainted Love
23. Neneh Cherry - Buffalo Stance
24. Rolling Stones - Sympathy for the Devil
25. Elliott Smith - Miss Misery
26. Leonard Cohen - Suzanne
27. Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights
28. The Whitlams - No Aphrodisiac
29. Blind Melon - No Rain
30. Jane's Addiction - Been Caught Stealing
31. Sex Pistols - Anarchy in the UK
32. Joy Division - Atmosphere
33. Nine Inch Nails - The Perfect Drug

Feel free to disagree... of course! Can you think of any other songs that didn't make it? Let me know! I'm always keen to expand my tastes in music. :)

Sabbatical

2009-07-13T23:36:00.003+09:30

It has now been over a month since I have spent most of the working week... well, working. I knew this time would come, sooner or later, and, frankly, I had been looking forward to it. After all, I have been working regularly on at least 0.6 EFT (and mostly completely full-time) for almost four and a half years. I know it sounds very Gen Y of me to say this, but after a few years of scampering around the rat-race, I was conscious of the fact that I was becoming part of a machine, and losing a sense of perspective and control. And it's easy to get sidetracked from your original hopes and dreams for your life and career. I needed to take some time out to reflect, regroup, and make new plans.

Staycation. Funemployment. Bludging. There are numerous terms which could sum up the conscious decision to spend time away from the world of gainful employment.

However, I like to think of it as a sabbatical. A respite. A retreat, to spend time engaged in the things that are important to me, and work toward a sense of self-actualisation.

So far, I've found the experience to be extremely liberating yet challenging. So often, people use "The Job" as an excuse to avoid ever getting to do the things that they really want to do. Take away that excuse, and there's only yourself. I've taken to writing and practising musical material for a cabaret show that I will be performing at the Butterfly Club next week. I've done a spot of solitary overseas travel (something that I've never done before). I'm registered as a volunteer at the Melbourne International Film Festival.

It also feels empowering to be at that point in my career where I can say, "No, I don't feel compelled just to take 'any old job'. I'm going to hold out until I see a job that I know is right for me." I've let a couple of job opportunities pass me by - jobs which I would probably be more than satisfied with, but I wasn't convinced that I would actually find fulfilling as an activity that would occupy a large chunk of my time.

Because something that I've come to realise now is exactly how valuable my time is. And, for now, I want to keep that time for myself. Yes, it's a financially-expensive option, but so many professionals these days complain about being time-poor. The question no longer seems to be a case of "How much money will you give me for my time", but rather "How will I be spending my time with you as an employer?" and "Is there something I'd rather be doing with my time?" Time spent being bored or unhappy is time wasted, and nobody benefits from that.

Of course, when you're in a job, it's hard to see the forest from the trees. However, now that I'm seemingly "outside" the loop, I can see across the industry, and it's quite clear to me where the changes are occurring, where the "don't go there" areas lie, where people are happy and enjoy working (and where they aren't), and where my ideal future career lies. I see the movers and the shakers - the shining lights in the industry - who I know I need to team up with to get there. And, for the first time in my life, I have a strong idea of exactly what I want to do with my life and my career. When you get that feeling, doing anything else feels like the stupidest waste of time. I feel both lucky and cursed by this.

And whilst I wait for the next bus that will get me onto that particular road, I have plenty of valuable time to live, love, read, write, create and share the passion - skills which I can build on in my future career.

A day in the life (depending on your definition of "having a life")

2009-07-11T23:05:00.002+09:30

7:00am Sleep is interrupted by alarm clock. This is obviously an inappropriate time to be waking up on a Saturday, and hit snooze. Twice.

8:00am Realise the time, and hurriedly have a shower and get dressed and out the door, wishing that there had been more sleep the previous night, and less YouTube.

9:00am Suitably caffeinated. Arrive at the Nova Cinema, and take a seat in a theatre predominantly populated by teenage and twenty-something slashfic-writing fangirls.

9:10am Curtains open. Cue John Williams soundtrack. Albus Dumbledore arrives at Number Four, Privet Drive, Little Whingeing.

9:30am Ginny Weasley says her only line in the film: "Good luck, Harry." Most people in the cinema slightly squee, quietly but audibly enough for everybody to realise giggle at what they've done collectively.

10:00am Hermione Granger has reached intolerable levels of annoyingness. Dialogue is full of painful unnecessary exposition and over-acting. How long can this continue for?

11:00am Fluffy slobber. Kids go "ew".

11:30am Hagrid waves goodbye. Hogwarts Express takes everybody home. Or not-home, if you're Harry. Roll credits.

11:45am Harry's voice has broken. The Masons visit the Dursleys. Dobby "takes the cake".

12:00pm Draco tries out some eyebrow-acting which just looks suss. "See you at school, Potter." *wiggles eyebrows" Half the audience giggles.

1:00pm Polyjuice potion. Hermione has facial hair issues.

1:30pm "Why couldn't it be follow the non-arachnid plot device?"

2:00pm Harry Potter battles Tom Riddle and a basilisk, aged 12. Dumbledore states the obvious: "I sense something is troubling you, Harry." Dobby gets a sock. Lucius begins to cast an unforgiveable curse, despite the fact that they don't get mentioned until book four.

2:10pm All exams are cancelled. Just as well, because there were no classes this year. Hagrid comes back. Everybody applauds for no reason. Roll credits.

2:30pm Harry inflates Marge Dursley and is all, like, whatever.

3:00pm Dementors search Hogwart's Express, hissing "Shire... Bagginssss..."

3:30pm Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff quidditch match. Cedric Diggory looks nothing like Edward Cullen.

4:00pm Sirius Black and Remus Lupin are reunited. Almost snog, but then realise that they have company.

4:30pm Harry and Hermione mess with time travel. Space-time continuum almost implodes on itself.

4:45pm Harry receives his Firebolt, but the film ends before he can actually use it in a quidditch match. Roll credits.

BREAK Re-caffeinate.

5:45pm Harry, Hermione and the Weasleys go for a walk. Edward Cullen jumps out of a tree in front of them, and sparkles slightly.

6:30pm The first unforgiveable curse is uttered when Ron Weasley tells Harry to "piss off" in a PG-rated film.

7:00pm Hermione appears at the top of the stairs, Molly Ringwald style and pretty in pink. All the girls (and some of the boys) in the theatre audibly sigh.

7:30pm Ed Cullen and Harry Potter head into the maze to rescue the baby of power from Jareth the Goblin King.

7:45pm Harry and Voldemort's wands touch. It's weird.

8:00pm Dumbledore tells the entire population that the Ministry doesn't want them to know this, but Cedric Diggory has now been turned into a vampire, and will go on to make awful movies in the United States. Everybody cries a bit. Roll credits.

8:30pm Harry likes kicking things. A lot. And shouting.

9:00pm Umbridge reminds the students that they are actually at school, and there are these things called classes and exams that they should be preparing for. Who would have thought it?

9:30pm Harry seduces Cho Chang under the mistletoe whilst wearing a rather nerdy mandigan. Edward Cullen looks on from the photograph and cringes.

10:00pm Fred and George have somehow gotten their hands on Gandalf's fireworks, and set them off during exams.

10:30pm Somehow, everybody ends up at the Ministry of Magic. Lots of smoke, blurring, evil laughter, and explosions. Sirius dies. Everything goes into slow motion. More explosions and smoke. Harry realises that he has more friends than Voldemort, so he wins. Dumbledore explains that the prophecy says that Harry must eventually face Voldemort and one must kill the other. Harry says, "What? That's it? That explains NOTHING." Roll credits.

Midnight Get home. Blog about my day.

Libraries in Vanuatu - Part two

2009-07-08T10:37:00.003+09:30

So, after spending a little time at the National Library, I wandered into town and had a look at the Port Vila Public Library.

This is the only public library in Vanuatu, with a fee-based membership, but members are also able to pay for their membership in woven mats - the "kastom" (i.e. traditional) means of payment in Vanuatu.

Anyway, from the entrance, the first thing you encounter is the adult fiction section, which lines the entrance hallway.

As you can see, whilst the collection is a bit old, there's still no escape from James Patterson. Some things are just universal in public libraries.

And then we come to the main service desk:

which was occupied friendly staff, and a table displaying new additions to the collection.

Wandering through the non-fiction section, I saw this sign, and I know that I've been reading Tame The Web too long, when my first reaction was to take a photo of it so I could blog about it...

Of course, another universal trait of public libraries (and state libraries) is that they are seemingly a convenient source of power for charging up phones, laptops, and other accessories whilst checking one's email, or reading the newspaper, etc. A bit of strategically-placed signage seems to have discouraged library users from taking advantage of this.

And then, there is what is possibly the most wonderfully eclectic mixture of children's literature that I've ever seen.

The optimist tells me that all the children's literature that has been written in the past 20 years is all out on loan, and that the remaining fiction, predominantly from the 70s and 80s, is what's left. However, from what I've gleaned from other volunteers, the public and school libraries in Vanuatu rely on donations, mostly from Australia. This generally means old books that have been weeded from public library collections - that is, the books that nobody reads anymore.

Finally, I poked my head into the Reference and Study room:

This was by far the busiest area in the library, with the room occupied by school students. I particularly liked the big mural on the far side of the wall, with the caption "rid mo raet emi openem rod blong laef blong yumi". My handle on bislama is rudimentary at best... anybody want to translate for me?

And finally, the reference desk:

All in all, despite the unfortunate age of the collection, the public library appeared to have no shortage of users, and certainly seems effective in the ways by which it engages with the local community. Imagine the difference it would make in the community if it were able to provide access to new literature and up-to-date information...

Three months and National Library of Vanuatu

2009-07-01T10:39:00.004+09:30

Well, it's been three months since I've relocated back to Melbourne, and I've feeling thoroughly settled in. I've spent a substantial amount of that time doing some project work at the State Library of Victoria in Reader Development, and they've been a wonderful team to work with. In addition to my work, I also got to hang out with the cool CYL folks, and help out behind the scenes at Reading Matters conference, which was amazingly amazing.

Anyway, last night I met up with a bunch of "new" librarians in Melbourne, for our semi-regular social evening with some fancy beers, and I was chatting a little about my recent trip to Vanuatu, visiting my friend Romany, who is currently working as a volunteer, fixing up the school library in a remote village, and getting the kids engaged in using it.

So, for those of you who are a little rusty with their geography, Vanuatu is an archipelago nation in Melanesia, in the Pacific Ocean... umm (checks atlas) about 1750 kms to the East of Northern Queensland. It's a developing country, so they're still struggling with the influence of western culture, since they gained independence from the French and English less than 30 years ago.

Anyway, being a librarian at heart, I took the opportunity to check out a few of the libraries in the nation's capital, Port Vila.

The National Library

Now, you'd think that, with such a nice big colourful sign, you'd be visiting a huge amazing library. On arriving at the National Library, I was asked to remove my shoes, as a measure of pest control. Clad in socks, I then stepped into the first of two small rooms. The National Library. I was asked to sign myself in, and it was explained to me that if they get enough visitors, then they can put up a case to get a bigger space to house the library in. It's nice to know that some library issues are universal.

Anyway, after chatting to June and Anne, the librarians, I had a browse about the collections. The main room housed the Vanuatu Collection, containing anything published about or in Vanuatu. There were many fascinating and sometimes hilariously non-PC titles written by 19th and early 20th century missionaries.

I also noticed that quite a number of titles (such as the Quarterly Jottings from the New Hebrides, pictured below) were facsimiles of publications held by the National Library of Australia, and it struck my how dependent a nation like Vanuatu is on its neighbouring countries (ie. Australia) in providing pertinent historical texts that they wouldn't even be aware of.

The other room housed the Pacific Collection, with its focus on information about the Pacific region. Naturally, my instinct was to see what they had about Australia. I was slightly disheartened when I initially spied a solitary Australian Yearbook from 1971.

However, there was plenty about Australia over in 919.4 on the shelf, as it should be.

I was also aware that I was in Vanuatu during the relatively dry winter months, but only cringe at the thought of the preservation issues that would arise during the monsoon season. Even for a National Library, the scope for environmental control struck me as being somewhat rudimentary. It really made me appreciate the challenges that librarians must have in preserving the cultural heritage in a developing country, especially given the lack of available resources.

NEXT TIME: Part two - Port Vila Public Library.

Are you a stressed librarian?

2009-06-03T00:44:00.002+09:30

Sorry about the hiatus - I've been distracted by life.

However, I feel compelled to blog because, for the first time, I find myself agreeing wholeheartedly with The Annoyed Librarian

The work isn't stressful; you're just stressed. And whatever stress you have, apparently it's less stressful to show up at the library and complain about idiots every day than to get up the gumption to change your work or your life. Don't get stressed, get angry, and fight to make a better library or move on somewhere else. If everyone fought to make a better workplace, battled the corporate drone manques and the non-librarians trying to run the show, and made their libraries the models of civic institutions they should be, we'd all be better off.

Amen.

Professional skills for non-professionals

2009-05-18T14:12:00.004+09:30

I feel compelled to add a further note, without lengthening my previous post, but they do complement each other.

Firstly, I still think that professional education is important.

In particular, technical knowledge, such as cataloguing and collection maintenance is important, as is the delivery of reference services.

That said, I don't believe that a degree in library science is mandatory in order to complete these tasks. The fact that I, a mere Arts graduate, was able to learn the principles of all of these through a textbook and readings, should be enough of an indication that it's hardly rocket science.

Some professionals exhibit shock when they hear that X Library Service is letting *gasp* library technicians, or even *shock* *horror* library officers conduct reference queries. But really, since when was the capacity for interpersonal comprehension and advice something that required a university degree? It comes down to training and people skills. Not a piece of paper.

I've certainly worked in libraries where staff haven't had that piece of paper, and they're definitely smarter than me. They should be allowed to demonstrate their skills, so that we can provide the best service possible to our library users.

(On a final note, I understand that at the end of the day, there are the regular duties and workflow to worry about. I totally accept this as a legitimate reason to keep the roles separate. After all, we're not paying librarians $33/hr to be checking books in and out. However, to claim academic achievement as a reason to keep the reference and circulation duties separate is complete bollocks, and just serves to create elitist division within the workplace. Your circ staff have brains too, or you wouldn't have hired them. Right?)

Non-professional skills for library professionals...

2009-05-18T12:52:00.005+09:30

Firstly, I wrote a guest post over at Blurb It, with a list of YA "must-reads". It's totally not comprehensive, as (a) that would be far too long to read, and (b) I wrote it later on. However, feel free to add suggestions in the comments.

But to my main point. Over the last few months, I've been weighing the pro's and cons of either undergoing further academic study, or instead trying to continue to get a range of professional experience in the field, and I've kept coming to the same conclusion:

Pursuing further library studies will make me a good academic in library science. Getting a wide range of experience as a librarian will make me a good librarian. However, being a good academic won't necessarily make me a good librarian, and being knowledgeable in library practice won't necessarily correspond to an insight into library science.

In March, I delivered a paper at the Somerset Celebration of Literature, about all the things that I learnt about librarianship that they didn't teach me in Library School. This has been further reinforced in my recent experience working with Reader Development projects for Victorian Public Libraries.

But today, what I wanted to reflect on is the various skills that are so valuable - not only for library professionals, but for all library staff (especially in public libraries - which, for the life of me, I cannot remember being taught when I was studying Library Science. That said, I personally consider them essential skills.

Customer Service
How many times would you let a phone ring before you picked it up, regardless of how busy you were? Do you keep an eye on your front entrance of the library, and at least make eye contact with every visitor wherever possible? Do you approach a library user if they do not appear to have a sense of purpose? Despite our best efforts in being community-orientated and welcoming to all, there is still an unfortunate preconception that librarians are often unhelpful and stand-offish. And by "librarian", I mean the person behind the desk, regardless of what their title is. Poor customer service will make the difference between people becoming regular users, or never coming back.

Social Skills
How good are you at talking to complete strangers? More importantly, how good are you at initiating contact with a complete stranger? To be honest, talking to strangers is something that I'm always a little anxios about, but it's become a necessarily skill, both in learning to network professionally and engage with library users. I've noticed that a substantial number of my reference queries in the library have been initiated by me making the first contact, whether it be a greeting, a smile, or getting up from behind the desk to talk to them. Again, it's about making people welcome to the library, and by making first contact, they know that you're not "too busy" to talk to them. This also leads to forming relationships with your library users, which is SO important when it comes to reader development. It's the first necessary step to getting those discussions happening in the community.

Online Social Skills
Yes, we've all heard the phrases Web 2.0, Social Media, and so on bandied around. And this is all very well and good to train people how to use the technology, but you wouldn't train somebody to use a telephone if they didn't know how to conduct a conversation with it. Technology is useless without context. The same goes with web media - it's not "Online Social Networking" if you're not actually "Social Networking". That's just Being "Online" (which is totally Web 1.0). Getting involved in national projects such as Ask Now is one way to develop online social skills, through providing live chat reference services. Similarly, getting onto reader development sites and interacting directly with other library users through discussion boards / blogs / comments is another excellent way of developing both online social skills, and reader development skills.

And this is certainly becoming far more pertinent as more people become reliant on accessing library services through remote access. We should be able to provide those people will the same excellent service that one would provide to a library user who walked in the door, with the same level of friendliness, empathy and willingness to help.

Reader Development
Of course, a lot of this comes back to Reader Development - to encourage readers to broaden their reading choices, actively promote reading as a creative recreational activity, and build community through sharing experiences of reading. It's not about the books, or the collection, or even the technology. It's about the reader, and connecting readers with reading experiences, and with each other. It's about the role of reading to facilitate pleasure, pastime, lifelong learning, social inclusion and community. Without it, there'd be no library.

Is it something that you'll necessarily learn in a text book? Is it even something you need a university degree to be able to do? It may not necessarily be considered a "specialist" skill by any stretch of the imagination, but the ability to connect with readers in the library, and really share that pure pleasure of reading, in all its forms and ends, throughout the library community, is really at the heart and soul of what public libraries are about. And absolutely vital to this the empathy and trust necessary to connect with library users, the passion to share and inspire with them a love of reading and a desire for community building and learning. The rest is all academic.

Of course, I realise that I've completely deviated from my main question of study vs. experience. But I think I've already answered that. I want to be a librarian, not an academic. So, I'll be a librarian.

The Great I AM...

2009-05-02T00:05:00.006+09:30

Okay, that title should boost my hits from the Christian demographic on the interwebs...

But I actually refer to Information Awareness Month, which is an Australian campaign to to increase public awareness of the breadth of the information industry through a series of events all through the month of May.

So, firstly, to echo the "I AM" affirmations that are declared on the website's website:
I AM a librarian

Not an information consultant, knowledge manager, document controller, information disseminator, resource coordinator, information literacy specialist, audience developer, emerging technologies trainer, content manager, social media expert, reader advisor, user experience designer, literature reviewer, collection maintenance specialist, communications officer, copyright advisor... Yes, I have performed many of these roles to some extent at one point or another, because that's what I DO. But it's not what I AM.

Again, I repeat, I AM a librarian.

And I say to all you librarians, don't shy away from the title. Don't let our name be watered-down by the corporatisation of the industry. We can perform a wide range of duties, and the industry is so diverse that there are some areas of librarianship that I will never be an expert at, but one thing we all have in common is that we are librarians.

Wear it with pride. Own it. Declare it.
I AM A LIBRARIAN

*ahem*

Now, on the IAM theme of Diversity, I'd like to put my Reader Development hat on for the moment, seeing as that's the world in which I've been immersing myself for the past few weeks in my work at the State Library of Victoria. Particularly, I would pose these questions to you:

How diverse is your reading? How do you go about promoting diverse reading habits amongst your library users?

Now, I'm a self-proclaimed YA reader. I like to think my reading is fairly diverse - after all, YA is about a target audience, not a particular genre. And a lot of it is far more profound than a lot of adult fiction which I've read. I like themes of liminality and transcience in adolescence, the somewhat-psychotic personalities that emerge in this pivotal point in life, and the lessons that we learn as teenagers that we often forget later on in adulthood (and often re-learn from our teenage kids!).

Plus, I read across the genre, with male and female protagonists, leaning more towards social realism, but also read my share of fantasy and speculative fiction. If you have any doubt as to the extent of diversity in YA fiction, then just check out the line-up at the Reading Matters conference this month.

But that said, I do try to diversify my reading. I try to get through at least one non-fiction text and one adult novel, a handful of short stories, and regular political / current affair articles per month. Having lived in Darwin, I know all too well how easy and comforting it can be to inhabit a singular world, but unless you never plan to leave, you're eventually going to have to get back up to speed on the rest of the world. I remember the first day back in Melbourne, seeing a 20-something indie girl sitting on park bench, eating tabouli out of a plastic container, and reading Tsiokas' The Slap, and thinking "Yup, I'm not in Darwin anymore".

But I digress.

The point that I'm trying to get to is that I've been growing up in a library environment that promotes reader advisory. I've trained people in it, teaching staff all about genre, and getting them to glean from the library reader what they've been reading lately, what they like reading, and then finding them something that will match their reading tastes.

Which is all very well, if:

(a) the library user has actually read a book recently and / or knows what they like to read, and

(b) you want your libraries users to be boring readers.

Yes, boring readers. You know the type. They start their sentences with "I only read..." and end them with strangely specific things like "british police procedure detective fiction". This is encouraged through reader advisory tools, often bookmarks with "If you like X, then you should read Y", where X is a given author, and Y is a list of other writers who tend to use the same genre / narrative style / themes.

Which is all very well for getting a fix of more of the same, but not necessarily the healthiest of reading habits. It's a bit like having sushi for lunch every day, because I know that I like sushi, and it's not that unhealthy in itself, so what's the big deal anyway?

However, there's a whole range of literary cuisines out there! The wider we read, the more we learn about the world, and about ourselves. As librarians, it's our duty to encourage readers to be creative with their reading choices, and challenge them to challenge themselves by reading outside their comfort zones. Guide them into becoming a creative reader. Because, really, there's nothing quite like getting through one's first Dickens, or one's first Chabon, or Winton, or Asimov, or even Stephenie Meyer. It might not be your cup of tea, but you have a wider landscape to compare your reading experiences with, and it gives you something to talk to other people about.

So, here's your challenge for Information Awareness Month, following the theme of diversity. Read a book that you really don't want to, then tell somebody about it. If you don't have somebody to talk to, feel free to comment here. Then go out, and challenge your library's users to go and read something that they would never have. And be sure to ask them what they thought of it later on. It'll be interesting conversation, that's for sure.

Happy reading! And stay tuned - I have something special coming up for Library & Information Week later this month. :)

Take me to the river...

2009-04-14T21:16:00.003+09:30

So, I've been a Richmond resident for two weeks now. I'm living in a lovely old two-storey terrace house. I've started to get over the novelty of being cold (but not quite enough to sleep with the window closed). I've been able to wear heavy coats and plaid ties and not get strange looks or suffocate from the heat. It's nice.

Anyway, over the Easter weekend I decided to go exploring. And wandering down a random street off Victoria Street, I found myself suddenly on a bridge overlooking the Yarra River, seemingly transported far from the industrial urban landscape that lay only mere metres away...

After following the river for a while, the track ended, and I sadly had to return to the world of bricks and pollution.

There was, however, a consolation. A brewery.

One of my very early memories is of sitting on play equipment in grade one primary school, playing "I spy", and arguing that it was a hat on a pole. I still think it looks like a hat on a pole.

Don't you think so?

Too busy to blog!

2009-04-07T21:00:00.005+09:30

Hi folks. Yes, I'm still alive. I've been super-busy in my post-Darwin state - almost too busy to blog - and to convince you that I *have* been busy, and not just lazy, I shall give you an super-sized post this evening.

So, what have I been doing in the past two weeks, since my last post on the 25th?

1. I left Darwin. This was the last that I saw it...

2. I visited Sydney. Compared with Darwin, Sydney is BIG. Mind-bogglingly so. I stayed at a friend's place in Newtown, and did something that I'd been meaning to do ever since reading Justine Larbalestier's Magic or Madness a couple of years ago; I visited the Camperdown Cemetery, located in the heart of Newtown.

In particular, I was searching for the grave of Eliza Emily Donnithorne, who many believe to have been the inspiration for the character of Miss Haversham in Dickens' Great Expectations. I found her, after an hour of gravely reading the stones (and dodging scary spiders):

Also, walking down King Street, I saw this piece of pro-Moomintroll Propaganda:

3. I flew to Melbourne. There may have been Snakes on a Plane.

4. Moved into my new place, a couple of blocks away from Little Audrey the Skipping Girl... except that she wasn't there!

(Fear not! She has been taken away for fixing-up, and will soon be illuminating Victoria Street, as she did once upon a time...)

5. Acquired furniture. Much of which was delivered in assembled form (ie. a bed and a desk), at which point I needed to completely disassemble it to transport it up a narrow staircase to my bedroom.

Then there was my Ikea furniture, which only required two screwdrivers, a hammer, and a basic knowledge of rocket science. Fortunately, I played with lego a LOT as a child.

6. Revisited my old stomping ground at Melbourne Uni. I met up with people for coffee, and saw one of my favourite Melbourne bands, Martin Martini and the Bone Palace Orchestra.

7. Started some casual work as a relief librarian at the City of Boroondara Library Service.

8. Saw a bunch of comedy. It was all good. However, I'm already starting to avoid the front of the Melbourne Town Hall as I wander down Swanston Street in the afternoon/evening. I totally understand the need for performers to spruik their shows - goodness knows that I've done it enough! However, there's a subtle art, and some people don't quite get it. (ie. be pleasant)

9. Caught up on Dollhouse and Gossip Girl. It's important, you see.

10. Started my second job, at the State Library of Victoria, with the wonderful folk in the Learning Services Division, doing some research / project work with Reader Development. I really am quite excited about this, as it's an area of libraries that I'm particularly keen on, especially in state and public libraries, and it's an area where Australian libraries have plenty of potential for growth. There's no point in being adept with the technology, with a desire to bring about "Library 2.0", unless we first have the skills and knowledge to actually relate to and engage with our library communities, and keep them connected with our collections.

So, now we're back up to speed. It's good to be busy. It's good to be in Melbourne.

Goodbye Porpoise Spit!

2009-03-25T12:19:00.003+09:30

Last week, I was often asked how I feel about living in Darwin, and whether I like living there, especially in light of fact that I’m leaving.

Now, it’s quite apparent to me that I’ve been unsatisfied with my life in Darwin for a little while now. If I were to pinpoint the moment when things started to become undone for me, it would have been around May last year. Which is quite ironic, because it coincides with when I started working with the Northern Territory Library, where I’ve probably gained the most substantial amount of job satisfaction in the library industry.

To be honest, my desire to leave Darwin has been entirely about me - where I am in my life, and where I want to go. This was also the case, when it came to my reasons to moving *to* Darwin, back in 2006. Back then, I really didn’t have much of a focus for my life. Sure, I loved books and technology, but I didn’t have a feeling for the industry, or know how I could go about contributing to it.

These things I know now, which is why I need to go back to Melbourne.

But, back to the original question - how do I feel about Darwin? Do I like living there? Well, last Friday afternoon, sitting in my hotel room in the Gold Coast, the television was playing a Missy Higgins music video from 2007. There’s something so evocative about pop music, and I was reminded of a period of time from living in Darwin in early-to-mid 2007. It was a time where the weather was, for the first time, becoming bearable. I had begun to make friends. It was festival season - the dry season. I started developing slight crushes on people around me. I was “in the zone” with my creative endeavours for the first time! I had discovered the biblioblogosphere, and was regularly bombarded with new ideas for libraries.

And I really enjoyed my life then. Yes, there were frustrations, but I was up to the challenge, and wasn’t afraid of causing offence for the sake of the greater good.

Life was an adventure of discovery, and Darwin was a catalyst for this. I was seduced into a world of discomfort and contradiction, where I needed to make my own fun, and find the beauty in the sublime, because nobody else was going to do it for me. If anything, I really learned not to take anything for granted.

So, what’s changed since then?

Well, firstly, me. I know exactly where I want to take my career, and Darwin can’t do that for me. I need to surround myself with other like-minded people. I derive so much strength and inspiration from others who share the same passions as me.

But more importantly, I have so much that I want to share with the rest of the world. I want to get out there. And I’m not the only one - most of the friends that I’ve made over the past two and a half years have left for the same reasons.

So, Darwin, please don’t take it personally. It’s not you, it’s me. We had some good times, but it was never going to last forever, and frankly, I haven’t been happy with you lately. Yes, you’re still beautiful, and there are plenty of people who love you. We’re just better off apart.

I won’t forget you, though.

March 24 - Ada Lovelace Day

2009-03-24T11:24:00.002+09:30

Today is Ada Lovelace Day, celebrating women in technology, so I'm (unsurprisingly) going to talk about librarians.

Firstly, I don't think I need to mention that the library industry is very much a female dominated sector. Around 85% of library professionals are women. However, this wasn't always the case. A century ago, the library profession, like most, were exclusively male. One of the most famous of librarians, Melvil Dewey, became a leading advocate for employing women in libraries, setting up a library school that *only* accepted women, sparking major controversy amongst the library industry.

Then again, it is also reputed that Dewey was a misogynist anti-semite, who only employed women for their lower wages. Nevertheless, this was the turning point for the library industry.

Now, one thing that really does irk me - on a par with people who say that YA literature isn't "real" literature - is that library science isn't "real" science. However, the main thing that attracted me to this industry is my personal passion for (a) literature, (b) technology and (c) working in the community.

Working in libraries, and pursuing studies in library science provides ample opportunity explore all of these areas, with the major academic focus being on scientific methodology with information access, in terms of classification, usability, software design, information architecture, information seeking behaviour, trends in content creation, etc.

Yes, it's a science. It's not rocket science or nuclear physics, but the technology of information science is very much at the core of our society. Humans are social creature, dependent on constant access to information, as an authoritative source, and as a means of maintaining community with our peers.

And librarians are the information scientists who work in building and facilitating the libraries, as machines that provide this access to our community, through our physical and virtual spaces.

And the vast majority of those are women.

It is unfortunate that librarians have such a poor branding when it comes to technology. Personal mentors and those who I most admire most in my field have been (with the exception of a handful) women, and their achievements and visions for technology in our community have been absolutely inspirational.

And last December, at the ALIA New Librarian's Symposium, I met dozens of young female graduates who are intelligent and savvy, and ready to embrace innovation and the technology on which libraries needs to be on the forefront.

Some people say that "it's a shame" that there aren't more men in the library industry, and there are certainly marketing campaigns attempting to attract more guys, focusing on the technological aspects. However, speaking as a male, I have never felt professionally isolated in this industry because of my gender. The industry is fine, just as it is, and those of you who say that libraries need more guys, because of the growing focus on technology, need to get your heads out of the dark ages!

So, Ladies of Library Science, thankyou for being amazing. I owe pretty much everything I know about libraries to you, and look forward to working with you in making this world an awesome place.

Somerset

2009-03-23T11:54:00.003+09:30

I’ve just returned from an awesome week on the Gold Coast. No, there weren’t any theme parks, or lazy days on the beach relaxing in the sun, or partying with intoxicated teenagers.

I speak, of course, of Somerset (aka. The Somerset Celebration of Literature).

“Oh? What’s that?” I hear many of you library folk ask. “I’ve never even heard of it!”

Don’t worry, neither had I, until I was invited to speak there. However, it’s been, like every other library / literature-related event that I’ve been to in the last few years, pretty much totally awesome.

The week-long Celebration is split into two main parts - the International Conference for Librarians and Teachers on Monday and Tuesday, then the writers festival from Wednesday to Friday. These were both excellently attended (all in spite of the impending recession doom!), with a fascinating and wide range of presenters.

Summing up the highlights…

The International Conference

- Lea Giles-Peters talked about how the State Library of Queensland is one of the most awesome state libraries in Australia, especially through it’s diverse learning programs for pre-school and school-age students. Tammy Morley from SLQ gave a further in-depth workshop on the learning programs provided.

- Helen Partridge discussed Reflective Online Searching Skills as a framework for information literacy competencies of undergraduate students at QUT. I personally thought that these skills were a given, but clearly not in this Google generation. I’m sure that filters in schools don’t help at all.

- Jane Viner at MLC outlined the services that they provide - the physical library looks strangely unchanged from what I remember 12’ish years ago, but the programs that they offer are up there in the 21st century. I’d love to work there!

- Paula Eskett discussed taking over and preparing a school library in Christchurch (NZ) in order to be integrated into a Public Library service as a joint-use library. Fascinating (and mindboggling) stuff, considering all the hurdles that need to be overcome.

- Shamini Flint and Kate McCaffrey talked about their personal experiences working with youth and these influences on their writing. They are both awesomely entertaining people.

- I also presented on my experiences working in the NT, as well as Librarian Idol , and how these aspects of my life have affected and steered my attitude towards my career.

- Tour of Bond University. Wow, that place is swish!

- An expurgated and unplugged performance of “Librarian Idol”

The Festival

- Meeting lots of writers. They are all awesome and friendly.

- Watching them work with school groups. Man, I could seriously see myself doing that. There’s my motivation for doing more writing. I wouldn’t care about literary integrity, or bestselling titles, so long as I got to be a bit crazy in front of a crowd of kids and get them excited about reading, writing, and creating stories.

- Performing at the Cocktail Party (and grateful that the crowd was prepared to indulge my needs to bag Twilight and sing Rihanna filk about libraries)

- Stage adaptation of Suzanne Gervay’s “I am Jack”. It was seriously, seriously good.

- Chatting to Alice Pung, whom I hadn’t seen in about five years. She also gave an awesome speech at the Literary Dinner on Friday night.

- Otherwise relaxing in the pool at the resort.

So, I've come out of the past week with SO MUCH inspiration and clarity about where I want to take my career. The conference confirmed my suspicions that I want to pursue my library work in learning programs for school-age students, and the festival was an absolute delight to attend. These are the worlds that I want to inhabit as a librarian.

James Roy has also written his thoughts on Somerset over at his blog.

So, library folk, if you get a chance to attend Somerset in the future, DO IT. Writer folk, I’m sure you already know this.

Teacher and Librarians

2009-03-18T10:57:00.003+09:30

I've always had a passion for school programs.

Back in my uni days, I worked with the Schools Liaison Unit at the University of Melbourne, taking school groups around campus, and showing them the sights.

More significantly, I was also heavily involved in the MUSU VCE Summer School, where, after a few years, I ended up as one of the organising directors, and, another year, running the residential program for school students from out of town, staying at University College. It was one of the most rewarding experiences of my university life.

And over the last few years as a librarian, again, some of the most rewarding experiences has been with school groups. From showing primary school children the public library and reading them picture books, through to taking secondary school groups on tours of the Northern Territory Library, and running research skills sessions. And talking to teenagers about YA literature. Those are pretty much the most awesome aspects to being a librarian.

Now, over the past couple of days at Somerset, I've been hanging out with librarian who work in learning programs, teachers, teacher-Librarians, and writers-who-have-been teachers, and I'm starting too think "Oh yeah, this is where it's at!" I'd love to be a librarian who specialises in working with school and youth programs. That's pretty much my dream job, and I know that I'd be awesome at it.

Here's the problem.

I'm a librarian. I'm not a teacher.

I want to work full-time in libraries. I do NOT want to work full-time in classrooms.

Today, I looked into what I would need to do to become a teacher librarian.

1. Quit my full-time job. (done)
2. Enrol into a two-year full-time course in teaching.
3. Work in schools as a teacher for an additional year.
THEN
4. Apply for a one-year graduate course in Teacher Librarianship.
5. Graduate as a qualified Teacher Librarian.

Question: Where's my motivation? Am I prepared to postpone my career in libraries, to work for four years in school classrooms, which is for me a special kind of hell, unpaid for the first two years, paid at a graduate salary for the next two, for the sake of being able to work in school libraries?

Answer: NO. For starters, I wouldn't be able to support myself financially. Secondly, did I mention that I don't want to be a full-time classroom teacher?

I have a newfound respect for Teacher Librarians.

P.S. Is there an easier way to get there? HALP!

Homecoming

2009-03-06T12:40:00.002+09:30

skipping girl vinegar
Originally uploaded by lorryx3

Less than a month from now, I shall be living a block away from here...

Totally FTW.

The idol mission...

2009-03-04T15:16:00.003+09:30

It has, of late, been disputed that I was ever on Australian Idol. Nor do people actually believe that I sang "Librarian Girl" by Michael Jackson (possibly misheard). Some believe this to be simply a tall tale, exaggerated to make my show "Librarian Idol" more entertaining...

I wish that were the case...

Libraries and Online Social Networking

2009-02-25T12:06:00.004+09:30

Eloquence. Empathy. Comprehension. These are but some of the basic interpersonal skills that are absolutely necessary, when it comes to being a librarian - being able to relate to, understand, and communicate with members of the library community.

We are often excellent at this face-to-face and over the phone. We use these skills to foster appreciation of our services amongst our clients.

So, how do we fare, when it comes to online interaction?

Over the past few years, there has been a huge focus on libraries and social media. Well, the technology, at least. Many librarians have been put through training programs, learning how to set up accounts in MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter... learning how to set up blogs, and read feeds... learning how to edit wikis and use social bookmarks.

But I often observe the deluded assumption of "If we build it, they will come".

And then, when the library blog sits deserted, or when the facebook/myspace page doesn't get any friends, the nay-sayers step in, shunning social media as a fad that has no relevance to libraries.

So, here's one thing I'd like to see. If we're so focused on libraries using social media, then we need to train our librarians up on actual social networking skills for online communication.

1. Get your librarian to find an online community, and infiltrate it. It might be a literary fansite, such as Obernewtyn.net, or one of the many Harry Potter or Twilight fan forums. It might be a political site, such as Crikey, or a knitting Ning, or a local band's myspace, or a meebo chatroom. The more relevant to your geographic location, the better (ie. Australian politics, if you're looking at a political community.)

2. Get them to become a "regular" in that community. That means sharing information about yourself, and getting to know the other regulars.

3. Engage with others in the community. Get fired up, and participate in arguments. Share awesome experiences. Link them to other cool stuff online.

4. Become the "resident librarian". Whenever you're sharing your passion for whatever the focus of the online community is, mention those resources that your library has, that they'd be interested. This is the point when you can really utilise library content on Flickr and Youtube, because you actually have an online community that you can share with.

Remember - it's not all about you, and it's not all about the library. It's about community, conversations, and collaboration. You can't build an online community from scratch based around a library website. That's crazy.

But what you *can* do is place the librarian (ie. you) and, consequently, libraries within existing online communities. There are a hell of a lot of them out there, and many of them are absolutely abuzz with activity.

And if you've got passion to share, then they will welcome you, and your library, with open arms.

Things that have been awesome this weekend...

2009-02-22T18:51:00.009+09:30

1. Being in Melbourne.
2. Shanghai Dumplings.
3. A DJ who plays music that I actually like.
4. A dancefloor full of people imitating Kate Bush to Wuthering Heights.
5. Late-night / early morning philosophical dialogues in hotel rooms.
6. An afternoon of picnicking in the Treasury Gardens with librarians.
7. Watching Tongan Ninja with friends, twice in a row - the second time in commentary mode.
8. Brunch on Errol Street.
9. Seeing-off relatively-newfound-but-esteemed friends, who are going on overseas library adventures.

And, for the epic win:

10. Going to an author talk, featuring two of your favourite writers, only to discover that it's also attended by EVEN MORE of your favourite writers! *squee*

Oh, and the potential for fail?

Boarding my flight 40 minutes after the scheduled departure time...

[Edit - 10:50pm] Boarding time is now set for 11:30pm... definitely fail. My 8am start tomorrow is going to be fun. As in totally not.

[Extra edit - 11:30pm] Still not boarding yet...

[Final edit - 11:40pm] I go now.

ApostroFAIL

2009-02-20T01:20:00.002+09:30

ApostroFAIL
Originally uploaded by librarianidol

Signwriters really need to learn about the apostrophe. I am always greatly amused when an establishment has clearly spent a lot of money on signage, only to have accidentally omitted an apostrophe.

On the other hand, misplaced apostrophes displease me greatly.

For all you VD lovers...

2009-02-13T09:50:00.004+09:30

Love
is like
Karaoke on a Thursday night.

Feels right,
yet so wrong
singing
the same tragic song
to a
fabricated
backing
track.

Professional Prism of Trust

2009-02-05T09:10:00.003+09:30

Professional Prism of Trust
Originally uploaded by David Armano

The latest offering from David Armano.

I found this interesting, because the professional branding of librarians, and the associated trust, is definitely an issue that we need to consider, when challenging the stereotypes of librarians.

Where would you say that Librarians fit into this prism? (I'd suggest somewhere between dentist and nurse)

How does our role as potential "social media experts" effect our branding of trustworthiness?

Dissention in the stacks...

2009-02-01T13:41:00.003+09:30

In an age of highly-dynamic information environment, librarians hate bureacracy as much as the next person.

As I have always maintained, library professionals should be abreast of emerging information trends, and be ready and willing to adopt them. We can no longer assume to know better than our users, and instead of trying to educate them to understand our services, we should be educating ourselves to understand their needs.

And yet, a common complaint amongst progressive librarians is, "We want to do these things, but our bosses / directors / IT departments won't *let* us!". There are plenty of librarians who would love to bring their services not just onto the digital medium, but into an environment that the general public understand and are familiar with. What's the point in using an in-house digital repository that is unfathomable to the general user, when you'd be far more effective by storing them on, say, YouTube and Flickr. (And, on a quick aside, it's interesting that YouTube is very quickly becoming the preferred starting point for younger people, even before Google! Should we start running sessions, not on "Smart Googling" but "Smart YouTubing"?)

So, how do we effect change, when the powers-that-be aren't necessarily pro-active in adopting emerging trends?

A colleague of mine recently attended Information Online 2009, and the presentation that seemed to impress him most (from the number of times he kept talking about it in the fortnight after returning) was the Keynote from Mal Booth, formerly of the Australian War Memorial, and now at UTS.

In particular, there were two major points that struck a chord:

"(Users) want the stuff.
They expect it to be
online.
Now.
Preferably for free."

and

"It is sometimes easier to seek forgiveness than gain permission."

On the first point, I think it's self-evident when you look at usage patterns. Google has by far become the preferred search engine, not because of any authoritative merits, but because it is quick, easy, and effective in producing results that are "good enough". Certainly, the National Library of Australia has been focusing its efforts more on being searchable via Google, rather than trying to market its own catalogues and repositories. Similarly, many Australian cultural institutions have been putting much of their image collections onto Flickr.

On a vaguely similar note, look at the usage of the wireless service at the State Library of Victoria. A few years ago, when it was first introduced, you needed to show legal ID and fill out a form to be a registered library user, and then wait for it to be processed until you could go online with your mobile device. However, nowadays, they've changed this policy so that membership is no longer necessary. Usage stats have (presumably, by the number of people I see there nowadays) gone through the roof, and users no longer have that barrier to their services. They can just walk into the building and be online immediately, with no fuss.

And in terms of our users, we don't want to create barriers to our services, such as unusable OPACs, ugly repositories, congested websites. And most public users don't care about metadata, and yet we spend so much time agonising over it! (I'm not saying these things aren't important - it's just that we shouldn't use it as an excuse for holding back when we could be giving people access to these collections) If they can just go onto Google or Flickr, and immediately find rare maps and archived video footage and photographs, then that's all they need.

But, of course, how does one initiate these kind of changes?

You could propose a radical project to your boss, with the hope that they've been suitably dazzled by buzz-words such as "clicks and mortar" and "UGC"...

However, in troubled times, being a visionary isn't as cracked up as it used to be, and I imagine that most directors are more likely to go with the safe and boring option, rather than take a risk on something that's a futuristic dream.

Or you could say, "screw it - let's do this thing". After all, anybody can have an online presence, and official endorsements are overrated when it comes to most content. What matters is the kind of following you generate, and the community that builds around it. Once the ball is rolling, and results happen, then you're in a position to sell the project to your boss. As quoted above, It's sometimes easier to seek forgiveness than gain permission.

I might, however, take this step one step further, and say that, of course, accountability may not always be key, but evidence to support your actions is still important. There's a difference between ignorantly jumping on a bandwagon, just because you read it on a blog somewhere, and actually seeing a need in a community that's being blatantly neglected.

And don't confuse dissension for insolence. If your vision doesn't fit into the organisation's core goals, then perhaps you're working for the wrong people. And if you find that you're suddenly on your own with your opinion, don't discount the possibility that you might be wrong. That's okay too.

But don't stop dreaming. This industry needs dreamers who can question the conventional way that libraries work, push boundaries of library services, and take risks in following our users rather than trying to get them to follow us.

Contacts...

2009-01-31T15:42:00.004+09:30

Day 31
Originally uploaded by librarianidol

Last night, I was doing some tidying up around the flat, and I discovered an unopened set of contact lenses. I hadn't worn contacts in over two years. It's not that I had a problem with them, they just seemed like more trouble than they were worth, and being a librarian, wearing glasses always seemed more... well, fitting to the role.

What's more, in my humble opinion, this is my current theory of eye-wear fashion...

HOT <------------------------------------------------------------------------>NOT
Glasses_______________No Glasses_____________Bug-eye sunglasses

Anyway, I felt like going out last night, to a venue with a band that could perceivably involve a bit of thrashing around on the dancefloor, so I thought, "Why not?" and set about putting my contacts in.

Fifteen minutes later, they were sitting on my eyeballs quite comfortably, and I went into town.

Anyway, later that night, I found myself talking to a girl who had seen me at a few gigs, and she made a comment along the lines of, "You look completely different without glasses - it's like you've got a completely different personality. Less... I dunno... librarian-y."
"So is that a good thing or a bad thing?" I asked.
"Umm... it's just... different."
And she gave me the kind of smile that generally makes me blush and run away quickly.

So, dear readers? What do you think? Do you prefer to wear glasses or contacts? Would you wear contacts out of vanity or practicality? Do you think glasses add character, or are they something that people hide their true colours behind, begging for a romantic comedy makeover?

---

Incidentally, today marks four years of full-time work in libraries. Is it retirement time yet?

On Heat...

2009-01-28T13:02:00.005+09:30

I am, from time to time, mocked by Melbournites for living somewhere which is generally regarded as "too hot". There are times, where I'd agree. But not today. Today, it's currently 30 degrees outside.

Now, compare this with the current weather in Melbourne. Today, they're looking at a maximum of 41 degrees, and then, in the next 3 days, expecting temperatures of 43, 40 and 40. It's been hailed as the worst heat wave since the Great Heat Wave of 1908!

This morning, I was doing some research on the Great Heat Wave of 1908, for a library client. I love newspaper reports from the olden days. Here are some selections...

The Argus, Friday January 17, 1908

ANOTHER HOT DAY.
RECORD FOR THE SEASON
106.7 IN THE SHADE
NO CHANGE TILL SATURDAY

The people of Melbourne walked the city streets yesterday in spiritless fashion, so enervated by the blazing head that not even the 5 o'clock train had its usual attraction. The day was one of great disappointment...

...Before a temperature of 105deg, is reached there is much that can be said; afterwards the only possible thing to do is to sit down quietly and say nothing. Speech is superfluous...

RECORD DEMAND FOR ICE
1,200 TONS A WEEK

The amount of ice that left Mssrs. Senitt Bros.' factory last week - 220 tons - was a record for the firm. But it will probably be beaten this week, for the output of yesterday alone was nearly 60 tons. "And if this weather only continues for a few days more," said the manager, Mr. Tatchell, cheerfully, "then all the reserve stock in Melbourne will be used up."

FRESH-AIR SEEKERS
ST. KILDA AT NIGHT

...White-frocked girls, who have passed the day listless and heavy-eyed, chat and laugh as they trip along the Esplanade and pier. Theirs are the unconquerable spirits of youth. And even as they laugh their defiance at the heat the suggestion of a breeze rewards their indifference. So they chatter the more, and when they meet the latest "boy" - by accident, of course - the heat has no place in their memory...

...One fact stands out clearly - Melbourne men are slow to adopt seasonable dress. Here and there a white suit is seen, but in almost nine cases out of ten heavy suits and high vests are the favoured male attire...

And then, the next day, it got hotter...

The Argus, Saturday January 18, 1908

THE HOTTEST DAY
109.3 IN THE SHADE
BUBBLING ROADWAYS

...Citizens sought in vain for a comfortable and cool means of travelling. The leather lining of the cabs was almost too hot to touch, the atmosphere inside the tram-cars was stifling, and even the breeze created by the fast-moving trains brought no relief, for the wind was so hot that the motionless atmosphere of the closed carriage was almost preferable. With one common foe to fight, passengers relaxed all stiffness. Hats, coats, and vests were thrown off, even collars and ties were removed in the endeavour to make the train journeys bearable...

...Rules regarding dress were disregarded in all institutions. Public officers transacted business in their shirt-sleeves, and often minus collar and tie. Event court discipline bent before the heat, and Mr. Cresswell, P.M., appeared on the city bench with a fan in his hand...

People got grumpy...

The Argus, Monday, January 20, 1908

FIVE DAYS OVER 100DEG.
A RECORD FOR MELBOURNE.
FURTHER HEAT PREDICTED.

...On Saturday, hardly anyone bothered about the temperature. The people were too listless. The man who inquired the temperature got a curt answer. "I don't know," the business man would reply snappishly. "I don't suppose it's as hot as yesterday, but it's more trying. I'm tired of the heat and the dust and the tar-steam. and - I hate the sight of a thermometer."

And then beach chaos ensued...

The Age, Monday, January 20, 1908

EVENING AT THE BEACH
REFRESHING THE CHILDREN

It would have been hard to estimate the thousands who on Saturday and Sunday nights croded the foreshores with scarcely a break from Port Melbourne to Sandringham. Four lines of trams and two railways carried them in hordes. And they came also in all sorts of private conveyances, from the costermonger's cart lit with a candle in a bottle, to the gorgeous motor car blazing with dazzling light. At Port Melbourne and South Melbourne the Esplanade and sand were crowded with hot and tired people. In places at St. Kilda it was not easy to move about, so dense was the crush...

SLEEPING IN THE OPEN
MANY HUNDREDS SPEND THE NIGHTS ON THE BEACH.

The overpowering heat has been responsible in Melbourne for a distinct departure from the usual practice in regard to sleeping arrangements. Hundreds of families have deserted their bedrooms, distributing themselves on the balconies in beds made on the flooring boards; on verandahs, slung in hammocks; on the lawns at the backs and fronts of houses, in public gardens, and on the shores of the Bay...

...The hot weather has settled in four or five nights the mixed bathing question. People of opposite sexes do not now query whether companionship in the water is right or wrong. They just dress appropriately, bathe together, and find no one is particularly scandalised...

...On the Mordialloc pier a like spectale was to be seen. When the local constable went home after 1 a.m. from meeting the last train, visitors and ordinary residents were resorting there by dozens, and they remained like Patience on the proverbial monument, peering into space from the structure when it again became light. All down the eastern shore of the Bay people, trying to catch cool respiration, sprawled all Saturday night on the sands...

...Every one who slept on the sand no doubt found it an agreeable experience until dawn. Then a want of unanimity was manifested as to shaking off dull sloth and early rising. Scores of vital young men were up at peep of day, bathing boisterously near the short and indulging in all kinds of horse play just when other people wanted most to be asleep...

So, Melbourne peeps of 2009... how are you handling the heat?

January 26th...

2009-01-27T08:21:00.002+09:30

Day 26
Originally uploaded by librarianidol

You know what makes me proud to be an Australian? When Melina Marchetta wins the Printz Award for (On the) Jellicoe Road.

And Margo Lanagan's Tender Morsels is named a Printz Honour Book.

So awesome.

And on a lighter note, a meme...

2009-01-25T14:39:00.002+09:30

Stolen from John Green's blog with a twist... it felt a little self-indulgent to Google my name, so I've substituted Andrew with Librarians...

Librarians need a better apologetic.

Librarians look like Pamela Lee.

Librarians say the dardnest things.

Librarians want to turn us all into privacy fiends.

Librarians do it by the book.

Librarians hate federated searching.

Librarians ask about taping copyrighted television programmes for educational use.

Librarians like reading lists.

Librarians eat questions for breakfast.

Librarians wear a Psychic Hood and carry a Force Weapon and have access to the Space Marine Armoury.

Librarians were arrested for the alleged crime of opening libraries, and thousands of books in their collections, including copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, books by George Orwell and other classic works of freedom, were labeled "subversive" and ordered to be seized or burned by the Cuban courts.

Librarians love banned books.

What do you think?

Our land abounds in nature strips...

2009-01-25T13:41:00.004+09:30

Firstly, I preface everything I'm about to say with the statement: I love Australia. I identify with being an Australian, and I am passionate about working toward making our society great. Relative to the rest of the world, we live in extremely fortunate circumstances, and we should embrace this.

However, I hate Australia Day.

Well, more to the point, I hate the way that it's celebrated.
Let me count the ways:

- Wearing the Australian Flag as a cape.
- Getting drunk and abusive, and then laughing it off, like the good old Aussie larrikin that you are.
- Flaunting one's white heritage as an excuse to intimidate and attack people who look "less Aussie" than you.
- Sexism. Even if yelling at sheilas to "show us yer tits" is just part of being a true-blue Aussie.
- Screaming "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi, Oi, Oi!" like it means something.

I hate the fact that I can't go into town to attend Flickerfest at the BCC Cinema in Mitchell Street tomorrow evening, because the streets will be crawling with beer-fuelled racist faux-nationalistic bogans, and I simply don't feel safe.

I hate the way that many people see "Australia Day" as an excuse to be a belligerent, prejudiced morons.

Because there is so much that we should be proud of as Australians.

So, I issue the challenge out to you all. Celebrate Australia as the clever country that it is.

Fight the cultural cringe, and read some good Australian Literature. Modern Australian Literature. There's a lot of it out there, and it's brilliant, world-class writing.

Reflect on the great things that Australians have done in the field of science.

Appreciate the freedoms that we have, for living in a democratic society, led by a freely-elected government. For all its flaws, it's still pretty top-knotch, and we have the power, as citizens, to hold them accountable without fear of political persecution.

Think of those things that Australia a great place, as a country of cultural diversity and intelligent discourse. Embrace it. Celebrate it. Be proud of it.

Oh, and Gong Hei Fat Choi! :)

Gig news...

2009-01-24T13:22:00.002+09:30

There's been a bit of a hiatus in performances for me... after the logistical stress of the Zombie Burlesque show last year, and a couple of soul-destroying corporate gigs, I've taken a bit of time off to recouperate and regroup my thoughts.

However, that's about to change...

One Night Only!

LIBRARIAN IDOL

As part of the Somerset International Conference for Librarians.

6:30pm, Monday March 16th
Radisson Resort, Gold Coast
Entry: Free for delegates, all others $10.

This will be a special show, featuring my favourite parts of the original show, as well as a few new things that I've been working on...

I'm excited. :)

"He'll make you a mix-tape, to give you a clue..."

2009-01-15T08:57:00.000+09:30

I like making mix-tapes for people.

Well, in this day and age, I make mix-CD’s, but “mix-CD” doesn’t roll off the tongue quite as well as “mix-tape”. But in spite of the format-shift, its form and purpose is generally the same.

Why? Well, like any good librarian, I like to share. It’s like compiling a good reading list (which I also like to do), or an anthology of short stories, except that it’s much easier. And much more personal.

A mix-tape will almost always tell a story. Or a number of stories. Every track evokes a certain combination of feelings, and putting them in a particular order takes the listener down a certain emotional path. However, it’s also a gift from me to another person. It could say a number of things, such as “I’m thinking of you”, “I’m sorry”, “I think you’re awesome”, “I miss you”, “I know what you’re going through”, or “I’ve got a big old nerdy crush on you”.

Of course, there’s also the need to impress the recipient of said mix-tape with one’s knowledge and taste in music. It’s important to have a good number of well-known-but-not-too-popular tracks, which the listener can instantly relate to, as well as a number of awesome-but-obscure tracks with which you can “educate” and expand the listener’s range of tastes. I also occasionally like to put in a really sappy power-ballad in there, if it’s appropriate.

And, of course, along with the actual tape / CD, there is the sleeve. I like to hand-make mine, using a combination of amateur scrapbooking techniques, and / or hand-drawn images, from love-hearts to zombies-fighting-unicorns, depending on the sentiment of said mix-tape.

Of course, there are circumstances in which a mix-tape will always fail. I have to confess that I once compiled a mix-tape that was designed to win back an ex-girlfriend, hoping that if I played it in the background whilst we were catching up, it would send subliminal messages, compelling her to come back to me. It didn’t work.

Anyway, here’s a track-listing for a mix-tape that I recently made for a friend. You may be able to detect an underlying theme / narrative. Any guesses as to what it might be? :)

1. First breath after a coma – Explosions in the sky
2. I know it’s over – The Smiths
3. I’m not that girl – Idina Menzel
4. Fake plastic trees – Radiohead
5. Sleeping – Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
6. Samson – Regina Spektor
7. Poor little middle-class me – Eddie Perfect
8. Ampersand – Amanda Palmer
9. Disintegration – The Cure
10. Numb – Portishead
11. Perfect – Smashing Pumpkins
12. Jeep song – The Dresden Dolls
13. Cynical – Eddie Perfect
14. Ducks don’t need satellites – Kate Miller-Heidke
15. Hope and jump – The Bluetones
16. The light of day – The Divine Comedy

What about you? Do you like making mix tapes? Or even just constructing playlists to suit your mood?

How do you make librarianship "work" for you?

2009-01-11T14:15:00.005+09:30

I've recently been doing quite a bit of reflecting and writing for the paper that I'm going to be delivering at The Somerset International Conference for Librarians and Teachers. I'll be describing my experiences as a young librarian, entering the industry, and the barriers that I needed to overcome, in terms of my expectations of the industry as I started as a professional, as well as my expectations of the communities and the services that I thought I should have been providing to them. I'll also be talking about my "Librarian Idol" journey, and how, in many ways, this affected the way that I found new ways of approaching my role as a librarian, but more importantly, understanding the public perception of the librarian - the so-called stereotype - and how we can use this branding to the best of our advantage.

But ultimately, I'll be talking about how I made the industry "work" for me, in terms of my own professional needs, whilst still making it "work" for the community.

I was pondering this, when Lee over at Tame The Web, made this post, posing the question: What should our job be as librarians?

Certainly, I had a very specific idea of what my job should be, as I left library school and entered the industry. After all, I had my piece of paper. I was qualified - I had the necessary information skills, and the motivation to guide library patrons to become information literate lifelong-learners. NOW was the time to go out there, and bridge the digital divide by inspiring public library patrons to become participative citizens in our digital community.

As you can imagine, the real world of libraries was a rude awakening. I went through stages of profound disillusionment, thinking that humanity was doomed, that people just didn't care anymore about bettering themselves through learning, that kids these days didn't read anymore, and so on. Reference desk work was rarely little more than basic customer service and direction-giviing. Every time I tried to push programs in a certain technological direction, I felt so much resistance to change, that it just didn't feel worthwhile. And, worse still, I felt this resistance not only from my patrons, but also from colleagues.

Put simply, librarianship was just not working for me. It wasn't providing me with the kind of job satisfaction that I was after.

At the time, I was working on a cabaret show, entitled "Librarian Idol". A lot of my frustration was poured into this show - it was sort of a coping mechanism. Comedy and music are wonderful things - they're an excellent means of trying to make sense of the frustrations in life that are just incomprehensible. Comedy finds form for the ridiculous, and music encapsulates the sublime.

Interestingly, my role as a solo entertainer, in many ways, echoed my role as a librarian. The relationship between the performer and the audience isn't that dissimilar to the relationship between the librarian and the audience. One thing I have learnt as a performer is that, whilst confidence is essential, arrogance will alienate an audience. Yes, they're lucky to have me to visit and perform for them, but I'm also lucky to have an audience to indulge me and pay for me to put on a show. It's a symbiotic relationship, and the essential element to being a performer (at least, in my experience) is pleasure. Finding the pleasure, and milking it. It makes the experience pleasurable for everybody. And, equally as importantly, a sense of grace and decorum. And yes, I believe it's possible to still be subversive, and maintain this.

In the same way, applying these lessons to my role as a librarianship has, more often than not, helped make my role "work" for me. The main difficulty in getting people to become lifelong learners, or to promote information literacy, is that perception that all of this takes (a)work, (b)time, and (c)they have better (ie. more pleasant) things to with their time and energy. However, this perception could change if we can somehow associate libraries with being a pleasurable experience, and find the pleasure in learning. Just as we hear, again and again, Helene Blowers utter the word PLAY! when it comes to professional development, and overcoming the PD barriers that we face when training staff, we too, as libraries, can draw the crowds to the library by highlighting on the pleasure that all elements of the library brings, whether it be the pleasures of reading, learning, sharing stories, debating, singing, and a host of other ways of interacting with the communitiy.

And at the centre of this is the librarian.

I love my profession now, I really do, and what makes it "work" for me is the range of pleasure that I can bring to patrons, no matter how perceivably simple or complex it might be. Certainly, there are often times where I feel understimulated, in terms of technological innovation - after all, that's one thing that brings me personal pleasure - but it's not all about me. As long as I can make a difference in somebody else's day, and make life a bit more pleasant for them in the library, then it's a step forward towards building a better community.

So, how do you make librarianship "work" for you?

Reflection, resolution, and refinement...

2009-01-02T12:11:00.006+09:30

The New Year is always a time for reflecting on the past, and looking to the future. For me, the past two years have been the most defining in terms of who I am today. That's not to say that the previous 27 years weren't also influential. It's just that the end of 2006 marked a very specific turning-point in my life, and it hasn't been the same since. I know that it's an awful cliche, but I moved to Darwin with the intention of doing a bit of soul-searching, and finding "who I am", and to this end, I feel almost close to completion - not that I've quite reached "self-actualization" as such, but I've got a much better idea than I did two years ago.

Each year has also be remarkably distinctive, and if I were to summarise them, I'd do so thus:

2007: The year of exploring and experimentation
I explored many aspects of my profession and the industry, moving through various jobs in different sectors.
I took substantial risks in finding my own voice, ranging from the optimistic and pleasant to the downright arrogant and cynical, through blogging and public speaking opportunities.
I played around with various performance art forms, incl. theatre, standup comedy, solo cabaret and slam poetry.

Overall, I got a good feel for the scope of my abilities, how to do things, and more importantly, how not to do things. I had a fair idea of where I wanted to go, but still somewhat clueless as to how to get there.

2008: The year of commitment and confidence.
Having seen that the opportunities were in my grasp, it was the year for taking a leap of faith, making the commitments, and hoping that nobody would call my bluff.
I self-produced and performed a successful show at the Adelaide Fringe, and then followed it up with a successful run at the Butterfly Club in Melbourne.
I did my part on a committee of accomplished and inspiring professionals, with the New Librarians Symposium.
I started making regular performances on the radio, and produced and/or hosted semi-regular cabaret/comedy shows in Darwin.
I developed my own identity and profile, both as a librarian and a performer.
I started making some serious decisions about my career pathway, and what I want to do with my profession, and made substantial moves through networking and "putting myself out there".

Sure, a lot of things that I did were occasionally off-the-cuff and far from perfect. However, I realised that I could wait forever to be perfect and never achieve anything, or I could go out there and "just do it", and I'll improve with experience.

The Year 2009
So, where does this leave me on my so-called Librarian Idol mission?
When I look at the past two years, I realise that I now have the motivation, the knowledge and the knowhow to get where I want to be. I've played around a lot, as well.

Well, this will be a year of quality. It'll be the year of taking the time to refine my skills. I know that I can do it - now I need to know that I can do it well. I'm going back to uni to get some more research experience. I'm taking the time to re-write my work, and improve it. I'm taking the time to think about things a little more before I say / blog them.

That's my resolution for 2009. Quality.

Moviehouse Memories...

2008-12-28T12:00:00.003+09:30

A recent exchange of facebook comments left me reminiscing on times that I've spent at the movies over the year. You see, I love films, and I spend a lot of time watching them. However, an essential part of that is the experience of going to the cinema.

As a child, going to the movies was always one of those special treats. My family was far from wealthy, so it was one of those things we'd do on a birthday, or during the school holidays, usually down at the Westfield Shoppingtown or Forest Hill Chase. There was something magical about the cinema - the vast array of promotional posters, the carpeted floors, and the ever-present smell of popcorn.

And then, in my mid-teens, there was the Valhalla Cinema, now (and, apparently, formerly) known as the Westgarth Cinema. (Yes, I know the Valhalla was also in Richmond, but that was before my time). My first visit to the Valhalla was to see Double-Take meets the Killer Bees. For those familiar with Hercules Returns, this was the team behind re-dubbing that film - except that they used to do it live in the cinema. And then I went to my very first 24-hour science fiction marathon, which was an experience in itself. Audience participation was allowed - encouraged even. I first entered the cinema, early into a screening of the original War of the Worlds, to find myself surrounded by paper plate "flying saucers" whizzing through the air. Finally, once I convinced my folks that I was going out with a responsible bunch of people, I started going to the monthly Blues Brothers show at the Valhalla Cinema. To describe these nights would take a long blog post in themselves, but they were a defining memory of my teenage years.

Melbourne has a wonderous tradition of cinemas. In my first year of university, I started going to double-features at the Astor Cinema, one of my favourite places in Melbourne. I also spend far too many hours at the Melbourne Film Festival, and despite having moved to Darwin, I've still managed to find an excuse to visit Melbourne these past two years, and fit in at least one screening into my schedule.

And then, last week, when I was in Melbourne, I found myself on Faraday Street, grabbing some lunch at Thresherman's, and I looked up at the Carlton Moviehouse.

It was around June 1999 when I went to my one and only screening at The Carlton Moviehouse with a girl that I was seeing at the time. They had announced that they were closing down, and so it was basically our last chance to go and see it. From memory, there was a choice between "Face/Off" and "There's Something about Mary". A sad way to see out a long-standing tradition of films. We saw the latter. Our relationship didn't last much longer than the moviehouse, which closed that same month.

Nowadays, I seem to have developed a penchant for outdoor cinemas. I've seen many a film at the Moonlight Cinema in the Royal Botanical Gardens in Melbourne, and I have yet to see anything at the Rooftop Cinema in the Melbourne CBD, having narrowly missed out during my last visit, but it will happen next time! And one of the bestest best things about Darwin is the Deckchair Cinema, which is exactly that. It's a cinema, out by the edge of Darwin Harbour, where you can see (mostly) arthouse films from April through to November, on relaxed balmy evenings with a cool sea breeze floating through (and a couple of glasses of wine).

It's my favourite thing about living in Darwin.

The Lemon Tree

2008-12-24T07:32:00.004+09:30

Last weekend, I found myself unexpectedly back in Melbourne, despite having only left a fortnight ago after NLS4. It was a lovely trip, and I managed to catch up with many awesome friends and colleagues.

On Sunday afternoon, I was wandering through Carlton, on my way to attend a rare performance of Hector Berlioz' L'Enfance du Christ (which was absolutely beautiful), and I was somewhat amused to see this:

Yes, the Lemon Tree Hotel is now a Children's Centre.

A flood of memories came rushing back. Some of them are vivid... some a little more vague. My first experience of the Lemon Tree was in my first week of my first year at the University of Melbourne, back in February 1997. I had joined the Simpson's Appreciation Society (which was, at the time, the club with the largest membership on campus... a title later taken over by the Chocolate Lover's Society) and it seemed like a sensible club to join at the time. What ensued at the Lemon Tree was a semi-regular evening of Simpsons screenings, projected onto a wall, accompanied by beer and donuts. The perfect distraction from the trials of undergraduate study.

The following year, I found myself joining the Law Student's Society. Now, I wasn't a law student, but I had a number of friends who were, and convinced me that I needed to join, if for no other reason, so I could get myself a much-coveted LSS keyring. This keyring would get me free food and drinks at LSS barbeques (which everybody knew was the best barbeques on campus - they always had premium beers and sub-zeros for the ladies), but more importantly, they'd get me reduced price entry to PTN's at the Lemon Tree. PTN was an acronym for "pleasurable Thursday nights" (although another P-word was often substituted, indicating the intoxicated nature of these events). It was always crowded up to (and possibly beyond) capacity, with a seemingly-endless bar tab. In retrospect, these evenings were the epitome of my more alcoholic times as an undergraduate, and I look back at them with a mixture of nostalgic fondness, and slight embarrassment.

Several years later, in October 1999, I found myself back at the Lemon Tree, after something of a hiatus. I was meeting a girl - a girl who would become my second girlfriend - for a beer, before heading out to a movie. We went and saw The Sixth Sense. Not a bad choice for a first date.

It wasn't much later that year when The Lemon Tree was closed down. There was still advertising splashed on the front blackboard, promoting the upcoming New Year's Eve party which would see out the millenium. Unfortunately, this iconic institution didn't last that long. The rumour that circulated claimed that the local residents in the adjoining houses finally won a long-standing battle to have it closed down, after the hotel violated noise restrictions by staying open too late. It always seemed a little odd to me that such a lively hotel was able to peacefully co-exist wedged between residential terrace blocks.

At least now, as a Children's Centre, there won't be the danger of patrons staying up past their bed time...

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-17T12:38:00.001+09:30

Today's news
Originally uploaded by librarianidol

With Xmas a week away, it looks like we might be partying like it's 1974...

Guest Blogger: Maureen McCarthy

2008-12-16T10:45:00.008+09:30

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. Let me present to you, in her blog debut, esteemed Australian YA author, Maureen McCarthy!

Andrew: So, Maureen, what exactly are you doing in Darwin?

Maureen: God! sometimes I wonder that myself Andrew. What the hell am I doing here? The weather is .... impossible!!! (at times that is anyway - real slitting the wrists kind of impossible) I've come up at the worst time apparently. It's the "build up" season and sooo very hot. But it's interesting too. The heat I mean. Sometimes I forgot all about it and even ... amazingly quite enjoy it! But back to the question, Why Darwin. Well ..
The short answer is that I followed a man up here! The long answer is as well as that ie following the man, I also needed a bit of a change too. Darwin is sort of frontier country ... and there is part of me attracted to that.
Golly I forgot the main reason. I needed to get away from my kids!

Andrew: So, I had the pleasure of being present at the recent launch of your latest book, "Somebody's Crying". How many is that now, and where do you feel this book has taken you, compared with your other novels?

Maureen: Well I think its number eight actually and they're all still in print too - at least they were last time I've looked. People sometimes ask how long I've been writing and its sort of sobering to have to say, nearly twenty years! Yeah I think that is right. I strted as a script writer and my first books were four little ones connected to four hours of television that I wrote in 1987 (In Between) Of course the series is well and truly dead and buried but funny to think that the books are still out there - in very small quantities I might add. Other titles include 'Ganglands", "Cross My heart", "Queen Kat Carmel and St Jude Get a Life",
'Cross My Heart" "Flash Jack" "When You Wake and Find Me Gone" "Rose By Any Other Name". No, I can't say which one I like best! Honestly it's like your kids. If I said I liked one of my kids best, the other two would have me on toast! Same with books.

'Somebody's Crying' has been different. It's centered on a crime for a start and although I didn't set out to write a murder mystery - in fact I very much didn't want to do that. I'm NOT a crime writer and don't even read a lot of crime. Don't particularly like it to tell the truth BUT it in fact has turned out to be a murder mystery (of sorts) What I was interested in was the aftermath of a huge traumatic event such as some one being murdered. And of course the relationships of those left behind. The book was based on a real event in a country town in Victoria. When I heard about it from the lawyer who was representing the accused a kind of 'ping' went off in my head. Meaning ... I thought "Yeah that is really interesting. I could weave a story around that real live happening ....

Andrew: So, you've been in Darwin - on the wild Australian frontier - for a little while now. Have you been inspired in any way for future writing?

Maureen: Yeah I have Andrew. I've only been here a few months and it's working its magic on me - kind of! I'm a bit of a drama queen at heart. I go up and down like a yo yo (meaning I get very happy and then go down really low at other times). Up here is pretty dramatic too so it feels good. I like the saturated colours all around me too. Where I'm living these amazing orchids are growning up and around the palm trees. The sweltering intensity of the heat and then, suddenly the sky has darkened, the thunder starts rolling and its pissing down. Within an hour the sun might be out again and I'm thinking 'hell what was all that about?' Crazy stuff. It is a small town. Melbourne (where I come from sometimes feels too big and loud and impersonal)so people are friendly and that's nice. But getting to know people takes time I guess ... I have no idea how long I'll stay.

Thanks, Maureen! Her latest novel is Somebody's Crying, published by Allen & Unwin. Here's the video trailer for it...

I've read it, and it's excellent. Trust me, I'm a librarian. However, don't take my word for it, here's a review in the last weekend's Sydney Morning Herald:

2008: the year that was...

2008-12-16T07:27:00.007+09:30

A few months ago, I co-hosted the Top End heat of the Australian Poetry Slam with Megan Spencer (formerly of SBS's The Movie Show) who is the current Drive-time radio presenter for ABC Darwin (but today's her last day).

Following the success of the live broadcast of the competition, I've had the opportunity to make guest appearances on her show on a semi-regular basis. It's been great experience for me, in terms of writing to a deadline (ie. "Hi Andrew, can you come in and perform something about Baz Luhrmann's Australia this afternoon?"), as well as just talking confidently off-the-cuff on live radio.

Yesterday was my final appearance on Megan's show. As such, the requested topic was a retrospective on the year that was.

So here it is - with thanks to Mark Pesce for getting me into a limerick mindset with his lines about Obama, and the Twitterverse for further ideas and support, as I worked to yesterday's 4:45pm deadline.

(Oh, and I'm afraid that I was far more cynical than usual - I blame our esteemed PM with his piss-poor proposal for Australia's carbon reduction scheme.)

2008
When I look on 2008
There's plenty that wasn't so great.
I don't mean to be shrewd
About things that I've viewed,
But some people I'd like to berate.

First up, there's that pollie named Kevin;
Voted in in 2007.
And whilst he said sorry
There's still cause for worry,
'Cos he's here until 20-eleven.

Sure, he called up the best and the brightest
To a summit, but hasn't the slightest
Idea what to do
When convincing you
That his values don't swing to the rightist.

But he's better than our Brendan Nelson
Whose popularity dropped, and then fell some,
Until replaced by Mal
Our Republican pal,
Whose entrance was still less than welcome.

Then there's that director Baz Luhrmann
Whose films will make millions, for sure, man!
But I like my screens
With more meaningful scenes
And less melodramatic manure, man.

In the US, we had Sarah Palin
The Gov'ner from Alaska hailin'.
A hot hockey mum,
Who was good with a gun,
But her campaign was subject to failin'.

Of course, the exception's Obama:
Ladies saw him, and murmured, "Oh mama!"
Oh, he took a stand,
And said, "Yes we can!"
Now we wait for the impending drama.

'Cos now the economy's screwed,
We can barely afford to buy food,
We're losing our homes,
There's no money to loan,
And we'd hate to live in Humpty Doo.

Yes, there's certainly plenty to hate,
When it comes to 2008.
Here's hoping '09
Will turn out just fine.
If not, have another beer, mate!

---

For those not familiar with the Darwin region, Humpty Doo is a town about an hour out of Darwin. It's claim to fame is the "Big Croc", as seen below.

P.S. I hopefully have a special treat for all you readers... watch this space later today...

Filling the void...

2008-12-13T12:20:00.003+09:30

This feels awfully self-indulgent of me to say this in my blog, but there's been an awful void that's suddenly appeared in my life.

Firstly, it's that time of the year when a lot of people leave Darwin. Many take their six weeks annual leave, and never return. Some decide that they're going to be more frank about it, and resign straight out. And others, who are only casual workers, take off to Woodford, and work their way down to Adelaide for the Fringe Festival, and come back to Darwin in April, once the weather starts improving. In my local support network, there are a number of vital "hubs" that are leaving, and very likely not returning, and this upsets me. It makes me wonder why I bother trying to network in such a transient industry, and whether I should be joining everybody else on the East Coast, where I have more permanent networks. However, I'm a little torn, because I also kinda like it here. There's so much scope to do awesome work, as long as people don't leave. However, people leave, because it's too frustrating to do awesome work. It's a bit of a circular problem like that.

NLS4 is also over, and as awesome as it was, I'm sad now. For the last two years, I've worked with an amazing and inspiring team, and feel honoured to have been taken under their wing in the committee, given that I was barely-graduated when I started. It's been wonderful to share a vision with them, and work towards making it a reality, and one that was every bit as amazing as we'd conceived. But now, like all projects, it's over. Well, I still have to write my report.

So the big question is: what's next for Andrew Finegan?

A lot of my Big Hopeful Plans for 2009 have already fallen through, or are very uncertain, and I'm still not quite ready to talk about those in a public forum. A lot of it involves my future career, and I've got a number of options appearing and disappearing in front of me as each day passes. It's all a bit too much to worry about, really.

However, angst about my entire future aside, here's a few events and projects that I've committed myself to:

1. The Somerset Celebration of Literature - I've been invited to speak at the Conference for Librarians & Teachers, talking about my experiences as a young male librarian entering the industry, the ways in which I've been able to make it work for me, and my hopes and dreams for the future of libraries. Even better, the rest of the week will feature some awesome Australian writers, including Maureen McCarthy, James Roy, Garth Nix and Kirsty Murray.

2. The Passion of Saint Lawrence - is a 10-minute work that I'm preparing for Short + Sweet Cabaret in 2009... keep an eye out in July!

3. Carnal Knowledge Management - is a full-length show, which is kind of a sequel to "Librarian Idol" but not really. It looks at portrayals of sex, sexuality, and perversion, in the canon of literature, and offers an hour of reader development in a way that is hopefully both entertaining, subversive, and thought-provoking. That's the idea, anyway.

4. The Novel - Okay, NaNoWriMo is over, but I'm not quite ready to let go quite yet. I've written a story that I believe in. It needs a lot of work, but the heart and soul is already there - it's just a matter of fleshing out all the other vital organs. And then I might actually show it to somebody else. Draft #2 starts this weekend.

Hopefully, this will be enough to at least bridge that void in my life at the moment.

I look at my weekly bus ticket, and it reminds me that we're entering Week 51 of the year. Next year isn't far away, and I have a feeling that it's going to be a good one...

RIP Dorothy Porter

2008-12-10T11:48:00.004+09:30

Today, the sad news appeared in my twitterfeed, that Dorothy Porter had passed away.

Firstly, I'm a bit of a bad librarian when it comes to contemporary poets. It's an area in which I need to develop myself as a reader. I'm getting a lot better than I was a year or two ago. I guess I partially have Dorothy to thank for that.

As such, I only became acquainted with her work this year, once El Dorado had been published, to astonishing reviews. I was at Adelaide Writer's Week, chatting to Nick Earls and getting my copy of Zigzag Street signed, and Dorothy was speaking at the tent next door, and I was captivated by her eloquence, talking about the idea of bringing the ancient tradition of epic storytelling through verse, into popular culture. Although she certainly was not the first to do it, she definitely raised the profile of verse novels in the public eye.

I actually had the pleasure of crossing paths with Dorothy at the Wordstorm Festival in May this year, and she spoke at a number of events, including an evening at the Northern Territory Library, in conversation with Megan Spencer, and an afternoon of queer poetry with Singaporean upstart poet, Ng-Yi Sheng. She was a delight to listen to, and always one to mingle and chat with the general public between festival sessions. Her company and sheer feistiness of character was one of the more memorable features of the festival, and a reminder to me that even the most celebrated writers are still human.

Leaving us far too young, at the peak of her career, she will be missed.

RIP Dorothy Porter
1954 - 2008

"Yes!" moments of the last week...

2008-12-09T12:16:00.006+09:30

I don't like to take too many notes at conferences. After all, the more I try to write things down, the less I actually absorb through actively listening to a speaker. And also, the papers will be available online very soon. (We promise)

However, I have a number of "Yes!" moments, that I'd like to share with you all, from the last week.

1. Mark Pesce. A lot of what he said wasn't all that new to me, but I loved the implied-history-repeating of the Europeana crash, almost ten years after the EB Online crash. The big 'yes' moment, though, was his call to arms for librarians. That we need to become "The Necessary Army" and take our services "to the streets", because the average person is drowning in information, and they don't even know it. That's where librarians of the future will be vital.

I couldn't help myself, and asked him the very-loaded question of whether we should be doing the same as a "necessary army" in the political sphere, in the light of proposed ISP filtering. He said that we need to "own it". (I say we need to pwn it!)

2. Christine May from VerbYL. That place looks like an awesome place to work, and concrete evidence that, yes, you can get troubled youth into the library - even if you have to sit them down on couches, and have Chopper Read storytime (I couldn't tell if she was joking or not - I suspect that she wasn't).

3. The Debate. For the second NLS in a row, I opted to play devil's advocate. However, my 'yes' moments came from Roxanne Missingham and Kate Davis. Roxanne said that there's "a little bit of librarian in everybody", and I totally agree. Training makes us "competent" librarians, however, experience, passion, and a pleasure for learning and sharing are all things that can't be "trained" into us. If we have those things, we don't need to be "made to requalify", because we won't need to.
Kate also mentioned that, when it comes down to it, if they don't have the skills, then yes, they should requalify - into another profession! It would be a win-win situation for everybody.

4. Naomi Doessel's paper. Something that she said, that struck home, is that we, as individual professionals, need to be able to market ourselves and create our own branding, especially if we want to break those stereotype barriers.

5. The Shanachies. These guys are inspiring, and have so much passion and enthusiasm. I loved the footage from their American Shanachie Tour, especially seeing Dr Michael Stephens sitting on the library floor with his students, playing librarian "Spin The Bottle" - his positivity and passion for the industry is so infectious, even on the screen.

And then Erik and Jaap turned the screen onto the audience, and interviewed delegates on their thoughts of what libraries should be. I have to admit that I was put on the spot (as were the others), and being filmed was a little nerve-wracking, but I stand by what I said - the key to libraries being relevant is about finding and sharing the pleasure in the way we interact with the community to share ideas and dreams - and(as Erik implied) in our own special ways, be it through songs, telling stories, debating, etc. There is a pleasure to be found in all of these things, and so long as we capitalise on that pleasure, then we will always be relevant.

6. Sherman Young. Technology has changed, but the book will always remain. It's not dead - it's just resting. It's a time investment, but it's also a pleasurable experience in itself. E-book readers are like the fast-food equivalent. I like that.

Of course, there were also many other really wonderful speakers, and definitely something for everybody. If you went, I hope you got plenty of your own "yes" moments out of it! Be sure to share them around. :)

Flying home...

2008-12-07T19:18:00.004+09:30

NLS4 is over. I am currently at Tullamarine International Airport, awaiting my flight home.

Two years ago, NLS2006 was a turning point in my professional path. It really opened up the professional world to me, and gave me both inspiration and guidance to set myself on the right track with my career.

This year's New Librarian's Symposium was a completely different experience. This year, it was personally a celebration of "new librarianship". It was very much about finding the pleasure in what we do, and sharing our stories, our ideas and our dreams with other similarly-minded professionals. It has been a fresh injection of enthusiasm, and I've met so many awesome new professionals, some whom are only just entering the scene, and will undoubtedly do fantastic things in the future.

I'll blog more at length with my thoughts on the keynotes, plenaries and a some of the papers, once I've had a chance to relax, and let it all sink in...

Look out, there are librarians!

2008-12-05T05:50:00.002+09:30

Pre-symposium drinks
Originally uploaded by librarianidol

Yep, in a few hours, the 4th ALIA New Librarian's Symposium will commence...

You can keep track of goings-on by following the #nls tag in Twitter, and photos will be uploaded intermittently into the NLS4 Flickr group.

Run, run, as fast as you can...

2008-12-03T06:50:00.002+09:30

This is my 200th post. Wow - how did that happen?

Anyway, the build-up can send people a little bit loopy, from time to time. On Monday, I worked a nine-hour day, travelled home, including a 15-minute walk from the bus stop in the humid climes of Darwin. I had my first massive build-up hissy-fit when I got home. It wasn't very dignified, and I'm glad that I live alone.

It may have culminated in bashing out Smiths songs on my keyboard, and wailing in true Morrissey style.

Last night, was a lot more restrained, possibly because I was excited about travelling to Melbourne for NLS4.

Last night, I embraced the build-up madness, by torturing a gingerbread man, and then photographing him in compromising positions around my flat...

More gingerbread madness here...

Presentation

2008-12-02T12:40:00.002+09:30

Today, I gave a presentation at the NT Libraries Professional Development Forum... it's always a bit tricky trying to cater for the kind of range of professionals that the library industry provides, from futurist gurus down all the way down to book-stamping luddites (not that there any many of those left), but the feedback was overwhelming positive, so I thought I'd spread the joy...

Web 2.0 and Australian Libraries

From: librarianidol,
1 hour ago

Web 2.0 and Australian Libraries

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: libraries 2.0)

Presentation at the NTL Community Development Forum

SlideShare Link

Next year, I'll grow a moustache...

2008-11-30T23:10:00.005+09:30

At midnight on the 1st of November, I typed in the first of many words that would follow through the month.

Now, with less than an hour to go, I've breached the 50,000 word mark, and found a fitting means to round off this writing project.

Yes, I have "won" NaNoWriMo.

Things that I have learnt in the process:

- Writing can be easy.

- Writing can be hard.

- If I have enough stories, they can combine, like Voltron, to make a big 50,000 word story.

- Doing something like NaNoWriMo is an excellent way for completely unrelated creative impulses to flow - on top of completing NaNoWriMo, I've written more verse and songs in the one month, than in the previous six months combined.

- I have a somewhat romantic streak.

- I have a somewhat masochistic streak.

- I don't believe in happy endings.

- I don't believe in closure.

So... what now? Who knows. I'll probably put it away, and look at it again in three months, once I get bored with my other various projects. For now, it's time for sleepy bo-bos...

Closed Information for a Closed Mind...

2008-11-27T17:52:00.002+09:30

Creeepy
Originally uploaded by nekonoir

Is this the kind of marketing that we can look forward to in the future, as a result of ISP Filters in Australia..?

Debate-able...

2008-11-26T13:27:00.006+09:30

Well, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Apparently, the Wet Season has arrived, but the rain isn't as forthcoming in Darwin as it has been in the past, so for us, it's still very Build-up-y. Not a lot of fun.

On top of my current commitment to completing my NaNo, I've recently said "yes" to speaking on the Affirmative team of the New Librarian's Symposium Debate.

The topic: that all librarians who were trained in the pre-Google Age should be required to requalify for professional accreditation.

Yes, that's quite a mouthful.

It's a somewhat apt statement - the library industry has changed so drastically in the past ten years, and it questions of the value / relevance of an Associate Membership of ALIA that is more than ten years old.

It's also possibly going to put a few people out of sorts. Nobody likes the suggestion that the qualification that they worked hard for, fifteen years ago, no longer fits the core criteria of necessary skills of a modern profession. But at the same time, many professions have an ongoing requirement that continuing professional development be conducted in order to maintain associate membership of the professional organisation.

Considering the dynamic nature of the information industry, why should librarianship be any different?

YA is all around me...

2008-11-17T15:52:00.003+09:30

I went to catch up with a friend for lunch today at my local establishment, and inside there was not one, but two prominent Australian YA authors there, completely unaware of each other's presence. In a small Darwin cafe.

Speaking of YA Literature (how's that for a segue?), the Inky Awards may have been announced, but there's still one more event to go. I'll be joining a panel in discussing the winners on a special Elluminate session online, tomorrow, at 2pm AEDT. Go here for more details on how to sign up and connect.

If you're interesting in seeing how Elluminate works as an online teaching tool, and/or you want to hear our thoughts on YA literature and the Inky Winners, then you're welcome to hop online tomorrow.

Shanachies are in Australia...

2008-11-17T08:22:00.001+09:30

Shanachies are in Perth
Originally uploaded by sirexkat

This image popped up in my flickr feed, Erik and Jaap hanging out with Australian librarians, and I am now quite excited. And a little bit nervous.

It means that NLS4, where the Shanachies are our keynote speakers, is imminent!

Only two and a half weeks away... *wibble*

See you in Melbourne! :)

The YA nerd factor...

2008-11-13T09:55:00.002+09:30

Last week, YALSA the ALA's Young Adult Library Services Association, held the inaugural Young Adult Literature Symposium.

I was recently reading Melissa's post at Pop Goes the Library (from whom I recently acquired the book of the same name, and it's got some brilliant ideas in it - I highly recommend!) about Fandom and YA Literature, which reminded me of an ongoing thought that I've had lately.

From my observations, many public libraries try to market themselves to Young Adults by attempting to be "cool", and ignore their strongest branding, and therefore there strongest opportunity of patronage of young adults. And that's books and reading.

I was recently talking to a C&YS librarian, and asked her what the proportion was with the way that she split up her time between developing services for preschoolers and children, and services for young adults, and her response, quite defensively, was along the lines of "You've worked in public libraries. You know what young adults are like. It's more of a priority to focus most services on storytime and other early literacy programs, as well as school holiday programs for primary school children. We have X-boxes for the teenagers."

Now, it strikes me that trying to make libraries "cool" to attract teenagers, is a bit like bike stores trying to make their bikes amphibious to attract fish.

And, you know what, I really don't mind that libraries aren't cool. Because there are a lot of kids out there who aren't cool either. There are a lot of kids out there who are keen readers, but would never use their public library, nor would they subscribe to their public library's blog. Why would they, when there is the fandom community that provides all of their nerdy needs? However, I think this an awesome opportunity for libraries to come on board, and explore the world of fandom. Get your nerd on in the library, and host fanzine-writing workshops, or dress-up/cosplay photo-shoots, or film screenings, or writing slashfiction... the options are endless. Even better, find the fansites, and get in touch with local literary fans, offer to host events at the library, and let them run the event and show you want they want to do!

You know it will work, because in the past, every public library has jumped on the fandom bandwagon with Harry Potter. Guess what, there are plenty more fans out there, for a wide range of literature, and I guarantee that it will bring in just as many teens as your X-boxes, but they will actually borrow your books as well.

(Note: I don't have any problem with gaming in libraries. I think it's great that they cater for all young people in the community... this is more to do with the false anxiety that librarians often seem to have, where they think that "teenagers don't read anymore". Yes, they read - they're just not using your library.)

November madness...

2008-11-11T08:31:00.004+09:30

Firstly, if the USA can get it right, what's New Zealand's excuse? I mean really, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but John Key strikes me as NZ's equivalent of Malcolm Turnbull - a multi-millionaire investment banker turned politician. He's centre-right-wing aligned, but has also likened himself to Barack Obama. Interesting...

I recall the last time Howard was re-elected, a lot of my friends were saying "Screw this, I'm moving to New Zealand!" Now, I wonder if Kiwis are saying, "Screw this, I'm moving to Australia!"

We're starting to get into the proper Build Up now. Yesterday, I walked across to the City Library to pass a heap of Inky Awards stickers to the C&YS librarian to put on their books, and by the time I got back, I was uncomfortably sweaty. That's under 10 minutes walk each way (and no, I'm not *that* unfit). I'm grateful for spending all my work hours within lovely air-conditioned comfort, but it's the hours in-between where the madness lies.

Speaking of madness, two weeks ago, I spoke of participating in NaNoWriMo, except that I said that I wasn't going to write a novel, because I thought that was a bit of a misguided approach to writing, but instead would use the month to write "stuff".

Unfortunately, one thing has led to another. Characters have grown and formed relationships. Stories have emerged from the protagonist's sordid past. Worlds have evolved, and intertwining pathways have revealed themselves. 10 days in, I've completed 15,000 words, which is a little under the daily quota of 1667 words per day, but I know that I can catch up (I blame three days in Melbourne). I'm not going to go so far as to say "I'm writing a novel", but hopefully it will resemble something vaguely novel-shaped by the end of the month.

In this season of discontent, where the weather makes my skin crawl and I'm not quite sure where I'm going with my life, I'm finding the whole exercise both cathartic and, more importantly, fun.

Back in Melbourne...

2008-11-07T12:38:00.005+09:30

Yes, I'm in Melbourne again. This seems to happen quite often. It's currently cold(er than Darwin), windy, with the occasional hint of rain. I'm really loving it. This morning, I had breakfast on a street outside a cafe, and ate hot porridge with cinnamon, raisins, and apple. It was glorious.

Other things that were win:

- Sleeping solidly on both legs of the journey from Darwin to Melbourne. This does not usually happen.

- Catching up with an ex-Darwinite who has moved to Melbourne, and going to the Malthouse to see Company B's production of Yibiyung, starring the wonderfully talented Miranda Tapsell, also from Darwin, who is definitely going places, so remember her name. She made my cry lots. Melbourne people - go and see this play. It's a top-knotch ensemble cast, with a relatively simple but effective set, and awesome sound and lighting. The performances are funny, tragic, and heartwarming. You will cry, but you'll also come out of it smiling. At $40, you definitely won't be disappointed (unless, of course, you miss out on tickets).

- The Inky Awards Ceremony. It was lovely to meet Simmone Howell, and the four other teen judges. Congratulations to James Roy and ~~Susan~~ Jenny Downham for winning the Gold and Silver Inkys respectively. And kudos to Lili Wilkinson and the Centre for Youth Literature for doing their bit in promoting and celebrating YA Literature in Australia. I'm already anticipating next year's Inky's - there has already been some extraordinarily good YA fic published in the last few months, with plenty more to come, and I suspect that it will be a big one next year.

- The Spiegeltent. I <3 it. A lot.

I fly out again tomorrow, but not before catching up with more friends, farewelling one of my theatrical mentors, and wishing a happy 40th to a former housemate. It's always hard to leave Melbourne - part of me definitely belongs here. But at the same time, I also have permanent wanderlust, wanting to keep moving, keep doing something different, meeting new people, and trying something new.

But, of course, that could always change. :)

If a picture tells a thousand words...

2008-11-01T15:34:00.005+09:30

...I'd have a lot more written by now.

Last night, I made my token starting effort in NaNoWriMo at midnight. By 1am, tiredness won over, having written an award-winning opening page. I'm more of a morning person, to be honest.

After a substantial amount of sleep, and some tea, I started writing properly. Then, I decided that what I needed was to do a bit of photographic research. That, and breakfast. So, I headed out the door, and walked up to Parap Market. Here's what I saw along the way...

Then, once I'd had my regular Saturday morning breakfast of fresh paw-paw (with extra lime juice), and a pot of EBT at Caf' Parap, I headed out to the Groove Cafe in Nightcliff, to meet other Darwin-based aspiring NaNoWriters. We met our Municipal Liaison, chatted a bit about writing, and shared some of our ideas. Here's what everybody looked like:

I'm now back at the Northern Territory Library, enjoying the air-conditioning, and working my way up to my daily quota. As I arrived at my place-of-work, I noticed an addition to the entrance...

Happy Movember!

Happy happy

2008-10-30T16:16:00.005+09:30

But, of course, life can't always be about arguing with politicians and its associated unpleasantness. Here are some reasons that I am happy right now.

1. Jose Ramos-Horta is in the house. Literally. In this building that I'm currently sitting in. I didn't get to meet him, because he was, like, surrounded by a gazillion people with guns, but he's here.

2. I've finished work for the day, with a feeling of accomplishment.

3. It's the final evening Mindil Beach Market for the year. There will be cool stalls and fireworks.

4. It's pay day. I went to the bookstore, and got my copy of Simmone Howell's Everything Beautiful, which I'm looking forward to reading. (I also fell out of love with the bookstore girl, which was fail.)

5. A week from now, I'm going to be in Melbourne, with the aforementioned Simmone Howell, and a bunch of other awesome people, for the Inky Awards Ceremony!

This all makes me happy.